Slayer of Nightmares
by L. Mouse
Summary: COMPLETE! The modern world's Inuyasha has run into serious trouble with Buffy, and it's up to Kagome, now a Slayer, to save him. InuKag, mildly Spuffy. 4th Quarter 2006 IY fanguild nominee!
1. Chapter 1

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Author's Notes:

This story has a prequel, "Alone in an Alley, a Slayer is Born." Reading it is not necessary to understand this story, but may be interesting. The prequel is about Kagome coming to terms with being a slayer _on her own_, without Inuyasha for backup.

If you have previously read the first few chapters of _Slayer of Nightmares _I invite you to read them again -- as I noted, _Nightmares_ was something I'd had on my hard drive for awhile and was posting to see if there was interest in reading it. There seems to be some (though it's obviously not as popular as my Swordsmen 'verse stories) so I have rewritten the first few chapters. I've added some exposition, a few extra scenes, fixed a few inconsistencies, and found and corrected a number of punctuation errors!

For people who are just finding this story, it is a Buffy/Inuyasha crossover. However, all you really need to know about Inuyasha is that it's an anime series with a strong "Beauty and the Beast" theme -- Kagome, a Japanese teenager, travels through a magica. well into the past where she is recovering shards of the Shikon jewel. (Which she accidentally broke.) She is very much in love with Inuyasha, the half dog-demon "hanyou" Inuyasha -- a character with more snark than Spike, and a heart of pure gold.

Spuffy and InuKag, eventually. (Also, this story eventually contains non-explicit s-e-x between consenting adult characters. I "don't do plumbing" in fanfiction but I do create scenes of romance on occasion ...)

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Los Angeles' darker alleyways had significantly more dark in them these days. There were leftovers of a night three years ago, when the gates of hell themselves had opened.

Spike padded silently past a stinky puddle of water draining from a Dumpster, stepped over a bum whose scent was too vile even for the lowest vampire to consider as a meal, and slipped down a two-foot-wide space between two large buildings. The trash was ankle deep here, and rats skittered out of the way.

It was cold -- not bitter cold, but the sort of winter damp that settled over the southern California during a wet spell. They were between storms, but the weatherman promised another rain tonight. The news was full of reports of houses sliding down hillsides or hillsides sliding down onto houses; he'd watched for a moment before flipping over to a sports station. Not _his _problem if some fool planted a house where it was likely to be destroyed.

A shout, ahead.

He snapped to attention. The shout had been human, and loud, and close.

"HIYAAA!" The shout came again, and then a muffled _boom_.

Spike broke into a run, lean predatory grace, heading for the rescue. As always. Some damn fool had wandered down here into the worst slums in the worst part of the city and he needed to play hero. Well, that _was _why he was out here tonight, of course -- patrolling for trouble. But it didn't mean he wasn't annoyed at the idiots who kept wandering into trouble. You'd think they'd collectively learn ... but no, they never did.

_Idiots are job security. Too bad the benefits suck, _Spike thought -- then realized there were multiple puns he could make of "the benefits suck" and filed the thought away for use later when he needed a good snark.

"YAAAA!"

The fight was in the middle of a dark, deserted street. He pulled up short when he saw the "victim" -- he realized after a moment's observation that little of his assistance was likely to be needed here, and the four demons surrounding the girl were the ones who were in trouble, not their quarry. She was fighting with efficient grace, and no fear, and a great deal of power in her blows.

_A Slayer. Nobody I know. Pretty, though. I might introduce myself when she's done here. See what she's about. _

Spike figured the Slayer could either be an ally -- and sure he wasn't adverse to having the local Slayer on his side, particularly one so good looking -- or a mortal enemy. Either way, it was good to know where he stood with her.

The Slayer was armed with a crossbow, which didn't surprise him. What _did _surprise him was what happened when she kicked a demon away from her and out into shooting range, then leveled the crossbow at it and fired. The arrow lit with a pinkish flame, hit the demon, and the demon went kerblooey. Demon bits rained down all around, spattering and smoking on the street.

He lifted an eyebrow in appreciation. _Nice_ -- she had some sort of ju-ju beyond the usual Slayer strength. Either the crossbow was enchanted or she was throwing a bit of magic around.

_No reason a Slayer can't be a witch. They just don't usually bother. Hit Hard Until Dead -- that's the Slayer motto._

The other demons bolted and scattered; she slipped a longbow off her shoulder and took them out one-two-three. Her shots had been sure and calm, unafraid. Boom, boom, boom. Spike guessed that meant that the magic was her own, and not an enchanted weapon -- unless both crossbow and longbow were magicked.

Show over, Spike applauded.

She whirled, and he found himself staring at the business end of a knocked arrow. He wasn't surprised by this and he only quirked an eyebrow at it. "Ooh, pointy. But if you kill me you'll never know what I want."

Uncertainty crossed dark eyes. He padded closer, and she tensed and hissed something in a foreign language. He didn't need to speak her language to recognize the word for _vampire_.

"Yeah, I'm a vampire. I'm a good vampire. With a soul. Name's Spike."

The arrow wavered, a bit.

"You speak English, woman?"

She _blinked _at that. He asked calmly, "Buffy ever figure out I'm alive?"

"Buffy?"

"Blond girl, 'bout your height?"

"I don't know a Buffy."

Huh. That was unusual. And her confusion was honest; she wasn't playing games. "What are they teaching you bints in Slayer School these days?"

"... Slayer School?" The woman said, then said, with a bit of a grin, "I'm afraid I must have skipped class for the lessons on Slayers. Let's try this from the beginning -- who are you , what do you want, and why would a vampire have a soul?" So she _did _speak English -- her words were accented, but clear enough that he thought she'd been speaking English for awhile. She was Japanese, he thought, judging by her appearance and her accent.

He quirked one eyebrow, very high, and asked "You don't know what a Slayer is?"

"I've been called it before. Generally, I don't get a chance to pursue the subject because the demon doing the name-calling ends up dead." She tossed her hair back and studied him, curiously.

"Tell you what," Spike offered, eying her weapons with continuing wariness. "Put the sharp pointy wooden arrow away and I'll tell you what you need to know."

She hesitated, then said, "Fine, but answer my questions about who, what, and why first."

"Right. Like I said, name's Spike. Ask around and most of the good guys and bad guys alike know who I am. I don't want nothing from you, I was just being curious 'n all. As far as the soul goes -- well, I _wanted _it and earned it fair and square. I needed to impress a girl, see." He shrugged and grinned.

She laughed, which he'd intended -- the _I got it to impress a girl _line was both true (at least partly) and believable -- and it seemed to work better than anything else for convincing strange good guys that he was on their side. She shook her head, apparently in disbelief, put the arrow back in her quiver, and said, "My name's Kagome."

"You old enough to drink?" He asked, "I'll buy you a beer if you are."

"I'm twenty." She said, shrugging. The tension and wariness was leaving her frame; her eyes were clear and only curious now. Still, he was actually _pleased _by her street-smarts when she added, "And I'm not inclined to drink around strange demons anyway. How about a cappuccino?""

--------------------------

Spike's warm British accent washed over Kagome as she sipped her cappuccino and watched the man with interest.

Vampires had fascinated her since the day she'd run into her first one living (unliving?) in the modern world -- it had been a vampire that had taught her that the modern world was, in fact, _not _void of magic and demons of varying descriptions. They'd just gotten better at blending in.

Very shortly after that she'd gotten swept up in the worst fight of her life. Sometimes, she still woke screaming. She'd been _alone _when the alley had filled with demons, and for most of that fight she'd had no help, no friends, nobody to save her butt. She'd had to save herself -- and she'd done it. And to this day, she had no explanation regarding where the demons had come from, or why there had been so many of them.

She'd had been barely eighteen. That had been a desperate fight, and she could have died.

But back to vampires ... vampires intrigued her.

In a way, they were hanyou too, like Inuyasha, half demon and half human. Other demons often despised them; humans feared them. She'd felt sorry for them at first -- and in truth she had tried to befriend a few. She had the scars to prove what a disastrous idea _that _was. The essential difference between hanyou like Inuyasha and vampires was that vampires lacked a human soul.

She was 100 certain Inuyasha had a soul.

This Spike claimed to own a soul too. _Earned it fair and square_, he said.

She believed him. Oh, she wasn't fool enough to _trust _him, but she believed him.

Now, the story he was spinning about Slayers and vampires, gods, demons, powerful magic and terrible prices paid ... it all sounded pretty familiar, actually. Given her own past, she was willing to believe it -- except, maybe, the whole Vampire Slayer bit. That was just too weird. _Except I've had demons call me that before, just before I slay them._

Spike himself was amusing; she'd actually liked him from that first snarky, _"You speak English, woman?" _

comment. And she was honest enough to admit to herself that it was because he reminded her quite a bit of a certain dog-boy who said _woman! _in the exact same exasperated tone of voice. Her instincts were telling her, despite his very obvious rough edges, that this vampire was on the side of the light.

It felt so strange to have a name for what she had unexpectedly become, a little more than three years ago. She repeated, "So you're saying I'm one of these Slayers?"

"You _haven't _noticed how hard you can hit things and how quickly you heal?" He lifted an eyebrow at her.

"Well ..." She hesitated, unwilling to simply accept what he was telling her without any questions. "I'm a miko -- it's kindof like a white witch, I think you would say here in the America. I thought it might have had something to do with that. And a friend sort've hit me with some mojo awhile back ... right after that, I found out I was so strong, so fast ... it was very weird. Kinda cool, but weird. -- Is this when Willow did her spell?"

Spike snorted a laugh. "Yes. And you _really _need to meet the other Slayers, Chibi, if only so you know who all the players are. I can give you some names to look up -- Rupert Giles should be in the phone book in Britain, he'd be the place to start. Can't say as I actually like the wanker, but he's useful. And you don't _have _to join their little tea party if you don't want to, but you might want to let them give you the orientation so's you know who's who and what's what. There's quite a few girls operating freelance, so to speak."

_Chibi_. She bit back a laugh and didn't protest the nickname. _I think being tagged with a nickname by this man's probably a compliment. I can live with 'Chibi' ... _And she'd take his comment about not joining up under advisement. There was something haunted in this man's eyes. She was 100 percent certain he hadn't told her the whole story about his involvement with this group.

"So," Spike sipped his own coffee, and then asked, "if you're not here on Slayer business, what brings you to LA?"

"College, partly, but I'm trying to find an old friend who might be in trouble." She reached into the inner pocket of her jacket and pulled out an envelope with a letter and a photograph. She seriously doubted Spike could read the letter, but she showed him the photograph. It couldn't possibly be as easy as, "Oh, hey, I know that guy! He lives on Elm Street!" After three years of searching. But she had to try.

"This your friend?" Spike frowned at the picture. "He's either not human or somebody did a good job on special effects."

"He's half-demon -- a hanyou." She confirmed, still bemused by the picture after looking at it for years. In it, Inuyasha looked much as he always had -- save he was dressed in thoroughly modern blue jeans and a bright red t-shirt. _Still likes red_. His fire-rat haori was nowhere in sight, but she knew he would have had to give it up eventually because it would have been very conspicuous in the modern world. He could wear a hat to cover his ears, and contact lenses might even change his eyes, if he needed to blend in. _If he still has the fire-rat outfit he can put it on before a fight, I guess. _

It was impossible to tell where the photograph had been taken; she could see trees in the background, and part of a house. No real clues there. "His name's Inuyasha. And he's a very good friend."

To her, he looked _wonderful _in that picture. She'd never expected to see him again -- now, she had evidence that he'd at least survived into the modern world, attitude and all. Somehow. Some way. "He grows on you, trust me," Kagome indicated the letter. "This came three years ago, with the photograph. It says that if I'm reading this Inuyasha needs me, here in LA. No details and no signature. There's an address for an house in Malibu but nobody had lived there for six months and the landlord said the woman renting it had died and he'd never seen Inuyasha there."

"You don't know who sent it?"

"Nope." She sighed. "I said my goodbyes to Inuyasha five hundred years ago ..."

_That _got Spike's attention. "I thought you said you were twenty."

"Well, yeah," she shrugged easily. "Time travel was involved."

"I see." He blinked, contemplated that, scratched his head, and said, "You _really _need to meet the Scoobies."

His easy acceptance of _time travel_ made her almost smile -- she hadn't met many people whose history came close to matching hers in the number and variety of adventures. However, Spike's past seemed to be every bit as colorful as hers. Maybe moreso. _He's older, _she thought, with some amusement. _Give me a few more decades and we'll see how we compare then! _

"Err. I said my goodbyes to Inuyasha three -- no, four -- years ago my time. I thought that was it, you know? I thought I'd never see dog-boy again. Then the letter comes, a month later."

"You loved him." Spike said this with his head tilted to one side and with an intent, curious expression on his face.

"Well, yeah. But for a variety of reasons, he couldn't come forward to my time. And I ... I didn't want to stay in the past. He knew this ... and he made a wish on the magic jewel that was the object of our quest. It was for me to go home and be happy -- and to make as much of a difference in my time as I did in his." It still felt like a betrayal, deep down, that he'd sent her away. It hurt. She understood why he'd done it -- it had been utterly selfless, he only wanted her to be _happy_, and she was still stunned that Inuyasha had made a wish that very selfless. But he had, and she was equal parts pissed that he hadn't talked to her about it first -- and impressed that he'd been so very self-sacrificing.

Because, at the end, he'd loved her too. And she'd known it.

"You have no idea who sent the letter?"

She shook her head in a negative. "It's obviously someone who knows about Inuyasha and me. But otherwise I don't know. It's been three years -- he could be dead, for all I know."

"Mm." Spike said, thoughtfully.

"Anyway, I figured if Inuyasha was here, I should find a reason to come here -- I got accepted to a college here. I'm a history major. On an athletic scholarship, for archery and track," she explained.

Spike snorted. "How much do you hold back?"

She grinned slyly. "I _don't_."

He lifted an eyebrow. A Slayer in college athletics was unprecedented. He asked, with a smile that matched hers, and a great deal of amusement, "Break any track records yet?"

"A few school records." She lifted an eyebrow. "What? Half my competitors are on 'roids. At least I don't have facial hair. It's not cheating if I'm using what fate gave me."

"Chibi, I _like _you," Spike breathed, with a laugh of open amusement.

"Oh, good. So you're not going to eat me later?" She blinked innocently at him.

He barked a startled laugh. "God, no."

She sighed, suddenly, sobering, and said, "Inuyasha's trail's three years cold -- not that it was much of a trail to start with. I don't know if he's even still alive.."

Spike blew a short, sharp breath out. "I've got some contacts you probably don't. Want me to see what I can turn up? Demons will talk to me what won't talk to a Slayer or a human."

"I'd welcome any help. I've had a hard time getting information out of the local demons, you're right. The fight you saw? Was a double cross. Somebody said they knew about Inuyasha but when I showed up for a rendezvous they ambushed me." Kagome huffed a sigh of aggravation. "Ah, well. I should know to expect that from demons now ..."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

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That Lorne had started up a new bar surprised no one who knew him.

Spike stepped through the doorway, let his eyes adjust for a moment, then scanned the interior out of habit. He wasn't exactly popular in demon circles; while Lorne enforced a 'no fighting' rule not everyone respected it. He'd been greeted with a punch before when entering this place.

Lorne was leaning on the bar, apparently talking shop with his bartender. The bartender was tall, skinny, pony-tailed, and model handsome. He had an Asian cast to his features, but absolutely no accent except for the usual Southern California one.

The bartender looked up, saw Spike, grinned, and Lorne turned around.

"Spikey-baby!"

Spike winced internally at the endearment, a little, but didn't let it touch his face. He _liked _Lorne; the demon was good people. The bartender he barely knew -- he tried to remember the guy's name, but could only come up with a nickname: Sailor. And he had no idea why people called the guy that.

"Hey, Lorne."

Without being asked, the bartender poured him a glass of blood and bourbon and set it on the counter. Spike sipped it with appreciation. "Thanks, man."

The bartender nodded, flashed Spike a smile, and then padded on down to serve a couple of demons at the other end of the bar.

"Haven't seen you in months," Lorne said, conversationally. "What's up with you?"

"Not much. Took out a couple of bugs of some sort -- didn't recognize the species -- last week. They were using people to feed their young." Spike sipped his drink. "Found a new Slayer; she's cool."

"Ick." Lorne shuddered, in reaction to the bugs.

"How's business?" Spike swirled his drink around in the glass.

"Sailor could use some help, if you want a job," Lorne offered. It was far from the first time he'd suggested Spike work here.

"Already too busy, sorry." Spike shrugged. It was an honest answer -- he was spending a good bit of his time hunting bad guys. "Hey, listen, I'm helping out the Slayer I mentioned. She's freelance -- didn't even know what she was until I told her, though she seems to have figured out the general idea of _being _a slayer all on her own. Wondering if you could look at a photograph for me and tell me if you've ever seen the guy around."

"A Slayer?" Lorne teased. "Not _the _Slayer?"

Spike scowled, and Lorne shook his head. Somberly, he said, "I can't believe she hasn't returned your letter, Spike. You ought to go pay her a visit."

"Fuck that. She's got my cel phone number if she wants to call. It was in the letter." Spike said, short and angry. He'd finally gotten up the nerve to write Buffy a letter after they'd barely survived the disaster that had been the fight with the Senior Partners -- she hadn't even sent him a postcard in response.

Lorne said, sympathetically, "She's not returning Angel's calls either, for what it's worth. I'm not sure if she's pissed at both of you or in trouble."

"There hasn't been the slightest rumor of any apocalypse bigger than the usual." Spike said. He was betting on _pissed _for Buffy's reason for not replying to his letter. And he'd come to the conclusion that, as much as he loved Buffy, he wasn't going to be her dog anymore. So if she didn't have the common courtesy to pick a phone up and call him or send him a letter in response he wasn't going to go crawling back to her. "At any rate, Kagome's a unique one, that's for sure -- she was killing demons _before _Wil cast that spell on the Potentials. And she's a witch."

"Man. Sounds like trouble." Lorne, demon, said with some concern.

"Oh, yeah," Spike said, with appreciation. _Girl _and _trouble _was not necessarily a bad thing, in Spike's mind. "She's _great_. And no, I don't think she'll be trouble. She can take care of herself, that's for sure, but she's not blindly homicidal. And she's got some smarts and experience already with dealing with the weird stuff."

"So she's hunting someone?" Lorne asked.

"Not like you're thinking. She's trying to find a friend. Here," Spike showed Lorne the photograph. "Ever see him before?"

"Cute." Lorne said, regarding the man in the photo. "I can see why she wants to find him. But no, I haven't ..."

Sailor, peering over Lorne's shoulder, said unexpectedly, and in a voice of complete surprise, "Inuyasha."

_Score! _Spike thought, cheerfully. "That's what she said his name was. Do you know him?"

"Hai -- yes, we go way back. He's a hanyou, half-demon. I doubt he'd ever come in a place like this without a reason; he hasn't ever gotten along with full demons. It's not so bad as it used to be for hanyou, but Inuyasha's been burned a _lot _in his life and lately life's been meaner than usual to him." Sailor tilted his head sideways. "Who's looking for him? I don't think he has _any _friends."

"You know him personally?"

A shadow crossed the man's perfect features. "Mmm ... yes, though not well -- not anymore. He kinda keeps to himself, pushes anyone away who gets near him. He has his reasons, I guess."

"Where can we find him?"

"Who's looking for him?" Sailor repeated. "I actually do care about the idiot; I don't want him tangling with a Slayer or something."

"Well -- actually, funny you say that," Spike sighed and added truthfully, "It is a Slayer, but she's freelance and she says she's an old friend of his. Something about time travel five hundred years into the past ... anyway, I don't think she wants to slay him."

Sailor froze. Then, suddenly, a positively devilish light touched his brown eyes. "Oh, dear. No way. No _way._" He chuckled, sounding vastly amused. "Oh, this should be _good_. I never knew _exactly _what year she was from, and I never expected to see her on this side of the ocean, but -- by any chance -- would this Slayer's name be Kagome?"

"Yeah, that's it. You know her?" Spike said, surprised.

More chortles from the man. "Hell, yeah. Oh, Inuyasha _needs _her. Mmm. Kagome's was a Potential? That's just perfect. It must be fate."

"Where can we find him?"

"I can track him down easily enough. I'll convince him to come here -- if I say _I _need help he may come; he's kind of an asshole, but one of his few redeeming qualities is that he _will _help a friend in need out. Grudgingly, but he'll do it." Sailor grinned. "We go way back; I _think _he hasn't completely disowned me. And hell, I can't wait to see Kagome _myself_!"

-------------------

Kagome was more than surprised when Spike showed up at her apartment very early the following morning, before the sun was up. He was grinning broadly, looking quite proud of himself.

"Did you ..." she breathed out. She stepped out her apartment door, letting it click shut behind her. "Did you find him?"

"I think so. There's a demon bar run by a friend of mine. His bartender claims to know Inuyasha." Spike lit a cigarette and took a deep drag on it. Kagome wondered what it said about his personality that he smoked; while vampires couldn't get lung cancer, there was the more immediate threat of being flammable and holding a burning stick of tobacco.

"I've heard that before," Kagome said, warily, about Inuyasha. She didn't want to get her hopes up too high -- she'd done so before and it hurt too much when they were dashed. "It's usually a trap to lure me somewhere secluded so the demon can make a snack of me."

"Sailor knew _your _name, Chibi." Spike said, with a pleased grin on his face. He was proud of himself, it looked like. "I didn't tell him that bit. He guessed it was _you _looking for Inuyasha. I think we've got a hit, girl."

_Oh_. She threw her arms around the vampire's neck and hugged him, eliciting a startled grunt from him. He smelled of smoke and leather and a faint undertone of booze. "Thank you, then!"

He returned the hug, somewhat awkwardly, cigarette waving in the air somewhere near her ear, and she let go after a moment. "So anyway," Spike said, eyes dancing with amusement, "We figured we'd surprise your friend. Sailor's going to get him to come to the bar tonight. Do you want to surprise him?"

"Do I ever! Oh, kami-sama, _thank _you! Spike, you've done in one day what I haven't been able to do in years!"

"It's all in knowing who to ask," Spike shrugged, nonchalantly. "For future reference, if you ever need to find someone, ask at Lorne's bar. Lorne usually knows everybody, and if he doesn't his staff often does. He hires them largely for their social skills."

"I'll keep that in mind!" She hugged him again, impulsively. "You are my hero!"

"Heh. That's me, hero to damsels everywhere." Spike said. He glanced at the sky, which was quickly growing light. "Listen, I've got to get going, get home before the sun comes up. I gave Lorne and Sailor your cel phone number -- they'll call you to confirm it's all set up later."

-------------------

Twelve very anxious hours later, Kagome stepped into the demon bar, a little wary, butterflies churning in her stomach. Inuyasha. After all these years, she was sure she'd finally found him. Sailor had called to tell her Inuyasha was coming -- she'd tried to find out more about the man, but he'd been a bit evasive, simply saying the Inuyasha went way back. She'd heard amusement in that voice, like the man knew something she didn't, but had no clue what that was about.

The bar itself was surprisingly upscale -- she'd visited a number of less respectable establishments in the last few years, but had never been here. It looked new, and most of the demons inside (and a few humans) appeared to be well off.

A slim, dark-haired man peered out from the kitchen behind the bar, saw her, smiled. and disappeared again. _That was odd_, she thought -- she could have sworn the man looked familiar, though she couldn't begin to place his face.

The bar itself was being tended by a tall, green-skinned demon with horns. She tensed a bit, recognizing one of the more violent species of demon, but the man merely waved with a waggle of his fingers. Then he pointed at a table in a dark corner of the room. Apparently, Spike had told him to expect her.

Mostly hidden in the shadows, Inuyasha was there.

She stopped, for a moment, just drinking in the sight. Three long years since she'd seen him last and he was alive, now, here, in the modern world. It was more than she'd ever dared dream of all those centuries ago.

Inuyasha was real as life in front of her, and damn but he looked good. As in the photograph, he wasn't wearing his haori nor did he have Tessaiga with him. Instead, he had on a heavy-metal band t-shirt that fit snugly, displaying the muscles she well remembered. His face, however, was exactly as it had always been -- he didn't look to have aged a day.

He was turned slightly away from her and she could see his hair was down well past his waist -- though there was a change there. He wore it in a thick pony-tail now, caught back with a silver clasp. It made him look a bit older and more mature. _It's sexy, that way_, she thought, with a grin.

After all these years he was still wearing the rosary. He hadn't managed to rid himself of it. It suited his current appearance well -- the claws and beads made him look just a little bit punk.

Grinning, she walked across the room, pulled out a chair, and simply sat down at the table. He looked up, surprised. She lifted an eyebrow, waiting for his reaction when he saw her and realized who she was. She knew her appearance had changed little -- she was taller, a bit curvier, and her hair was shorter. But really? Not so different.

But the response she expected just didn't come. No recognition lit in those eyes -- absolutely none at all. Instead, he said shortly, "Not interested. Go proposition someone else."

"Hey!" She protested, a bit stung. "Inuyasha ..."

"I said I'm not interested." His amber eyes flicked over her, flat and cold. She suddenly regretted the impulse that had led her to wear a low-cut t-shirt and skimpy shorts. It wasn't anything worse than her school uniform a few years before, but it had also been a deliberate choice -- sexy clothes, for a man she was perfectly willing to admit she found most attractive. Once upon a time, the interest had been mutual. Not that they'd ever been willing to _acknowledge _it.

Sometimes, at night, she wished she could give her fifteen-year-old-self a swift kick in the rump and tell her to _kiss the jerk already, he's not going to bite you!_

Well, maybe she'd get an unexpected second chance. And this time, things _would _be different.

Apparently, he'd taken the skimpy clothing entirely the wrong way and thought she was some slut (or worse) trying to pick him up. Well -- she _was _trying to imply a few things to him, but she was hardly a slut. Hell, she was still technically suitable for feeding to dragons. The only guy she'd ever even kissed was sitting in front of her right now.

By his expression, however, he didn't recognize her at all. Period. _That _hurt.

"Inuyasha ..." She said, trying to get him to _look _at her. _C'mon, dog-boy. It's been five centuries but I can't believe I made _that _little of an impression on you. _

" Keh. Go away. Not buying any. I'm just meeting a friend who said he needed some help." He made a dismissive gesture. The _keh _noise was so familiar it made her want to cry for joy. She'd found him! And he still wasn't looking at her with anything approaching dawning comprehension of who she was. He sat shortly, "I'm not looking for a _date_."

"Idiot." She snorted, anger starting to rise. "You haven't a foggy clue who I am, do you? I've been looking for you for _years_."

He said impatiently, "That's it, I'm out of here ... that damned fox can find me somewhere else." He stood up, grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair, and headed for the door.

"Wait!" She grabbed his sleeve as he started to walk past her chair. "Don't you wonder how I know your name?"

"The damn trickster's playing games and he told you," Inuyasha said, with confidence. He tried to pull free, and she transferred her grasp to his wrist. "This is some prank he's pulling on me. I am _not _amused. Bastard probably thinks I need a good lay or something."

_Well, at least the clothes worked. Though the next time I see him, I think I'm wearing the most shapeless sweats I own. Bastard indeed._

"Wait a second. Hear me out, Inuyasha. This isn't what you think. I'm not propositioning you -- at least, not yet." She flashed him a teasing grin, expecting a blush, because that's what _her _Inuyasha would have done, had she been so bold years before. The difference between fifteen and twenty was a _lot _of confidence!

"Let go." His voice suddenly held flat menace. She'd heard hot rage from him before, plenty of times, but never that particular tone of cold, deadly threat. It startled her, and it had been in direct response to her attempt to flirt.

"No." She said, refusing to let go -- perhaps unwisely, but this _was _Inuyasha and she couldn't conceive of him hurting her. Deep down, he _had _to know who she was.

She never even saw the blow coming. The back of his hand smashed into the side of her head with stunning force. The chair she was sitting on started to tip over backwards -- what Spike called "Slayer reflexes" kicked in and despite the fact that he'd hit her hard enough to make her vision go black with gold sparklies she did a backwards handspring over the falling chair and cart wheeled to her feet. Instinct caused her to land in a fighting stance.

Inuyasha stared at her with wide, startled eyes. For a moment, she thought he'd recognized her -- but the recognition was of an entirely other kind. "A _Slayer_." He growled, the cold anger going hot and furious.

She had one heartbeat to see him shift his weight into a deadly attack. His claws were out and his teeth bared and he was coming for her with every bit of the ferocity she remembered of old -- but that fury had never, ever, been turned her way. No amount of Slayer strength and speed was going to stop _that _attack. She was going to _die_!

"SIT BOY!" She screamed, high and terrified -- never had she delivered a "Sit!" with that much panic in her voice.

He slammed into the ground, hard, and slid to a stop an inch from her feet.

Silence.

More silence.

For a moment, she thought she'd actually knocked him unconscious. He wasn't moving. His ponytail slid across his back and pooled on the ground beside him, a silver banner. Concerned, she leaned over and verified that he was at least breathing. His breath was coming rapidly.

Finally, "Fuck."

She waited, heart in her throat, wondering if he was going to attack her again when he could move. On the other hand, he ought to know her now ... there was no way in freaking hell he could forget being _sat_ by the rosary.

"Fuck." He banged his forehead against the ground. "Fuck." He did it again. "Fuck." A third collision of skull with the dusty floor.

"Inuyasha?" She said, hesitantly.

"..."

No comment, she supposed, was _probably _better than profanity.

"Can you get up?"

"I fucking forgot how fucking much that hurts." He still wasn't trying to stand -- or even looking up at her. And he was still swearing profusely.

"Do you ... do you remember me now?" She said, hesitantly, and not entirely able to keep the _hurt _out of her voice. She knew her appearance hadn't changed much at all; how could he have forgotten her?

_Five hundred years,_ A tiny voice whispered in the back of her head. _It's been five hundred years. He might not even remember your name. _

"Kagome." He said, quietly. No profanity and she'd never been so glad to hear her name from Inuyasha before. At least he remembered that much. His next words, however, sent her heart back to her toes, because there was absolutely _no _warmth in them, just snark. "I'm so glad to see you haven't lost your touch."

"Get up." She said, impatiently. "Quit feeling sorry for yourself. You know damn well you more than had it coming."

Stiffly, he sat up. His lip was swollen and he still looked very mad -- though not homicidal. She relaxed a little, though she wouldn't be surprised if Inuyasha walked in her nightmares tonight. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Looking for _you_. And going to college here. I found out you were alive and I had to make sure you were okay. Inuyasha, I know it's been a long time, but ..."

"Go away, Kagome." He stood up, spat blood, and said, "Go away, forget you ever knew me."

"I can't do that! Inuyasha!"

"You don't want to be involved with me right now, Kagome. Trust me on this one. And if you _ever _'Sit' me again you'd better be willing to start sleeping with your eyes open." _That _was delivered in a tone of voice of anger she _did _recognize -- and she blanched.

She couldn't believe he was speaking to her like this -- like she didn't matter, like she was _nothing _but a threat to him. There wasn't the slightest hint of the grumpy affection that _her _Inuyasha had always had in his voice when he was yelling at her. His eyes were cold and hard and he stared at her until she looked away, uncomfortable.

He picked his coat up off the ground and said, "Don't follow me."

"I-inuyasha!"

He stalked out the door without looking back.

Her breath hitched in her chest. She'd dreamed of this reunion for years ... she'd never thought it would be like this ... she wanted to scream grief, it was almost as if the Inuyasha she'd known was dead. _He never threatened me like that. Not ever. 'Better be willing to sleep with your eyes open ...' that was an honest threat to _kill _me, I think. He wasn't bluffing._

She knew Inuyasha. She knew the difference between Inuyasha pissed off and cranky and Inuyasha deadly serious. That statement had been very much of the latter category.

"Kagome-chan."

She turned, forcing tears and sobs back with sheer force of will. The dark-haired man stood there -- he was dressed in designer jeans and a bright green silk shirt. He sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Kagome-chan. I thought perhaps ... well, he's an asshole, but I didn't think he'd inflict his asshole-itude on you to the degree he does to the rest of the word. I was obviously wrong."

"Who are you?" He was so very familiar.

The man gave her a crooked grin. "Would you believe I'm Shippou?"

_Oh. Sailor. Duh. It's a rather lame pun. Ship-o. _

He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her in a hug of greeting. "I'm sorry, Kagome-chan, I really am. He just hasn't been the same since Amelia died."

"Shippou?" _Now _she did burst into tears, unsure if she was crying because Inuyasha had just shattered her heart, or if she was crying tears of joy because another one of her friends was alive and well. At least Shippou was glad to see her. Into his shoulder she said, "You're all grown up!"

"Five centuries will do that." His embrace was tight, for a moment.. "I've missed you, Kagome. I'm so glad to see you. I remember you well, even if he doesn't."

"Did _you _send that letter?"

"Letter?" Apparently not. He let her go, and said, "I wasn't even sure what year you started going through the well. I've been a little hesitant to look you up for fear of creating a paradox if I did. I take it enough time's passed now ..."

"Yeah." She sniffed; her nose was stuffed up. "It's been three years."

"Hey." He reached onto the table, retrieved a napkin, and handed it to her.

"Shippou, what's wrong with Inuyasha?" She wiped at her eyes and blew her nose.

"Aren't you going to go after him and find out?" He said. "It's not my story to tell."

"I ... he didn't exactly sound like he wanted to see me. He tried to _kill _me." She was under no illusions about the deadly nature of his attack. If not for the rosary, he'd have torn her to shreds.

"Exactly why you need to go after him. Kagome, Inuyasha needs you more than he's ever needed you before. If you can't help him, I don't think anyone can." Shippou paused, then added, "Oh, and be careful. And I don't mean about Inuyasha, though that applies too -- I mean look out for other trouble. I don't know all the details about what happened -- Inuyasha won't talk about it -- but he's made some bad enemies."

"Thanks." She hugged him again, briefly. It was hard to believe that this tall, poised man was the kitsune she'd known so long ago -- but when she looked him in the eyes, she could see the resemblance. The baby had become a man -- and had done something weird to his hair, which had been a reddish brown -- but he still had the same old soul. Shippou had always been uncannily perceptive; he didn't sound like he'd changed much. She asked, "How do I find you?"

"I _work _here." Shippou snorted. "I'm real hard to locate, Kagome. Go on, go see if you can catch idiot-boy. I'll be here if you need to talk to me later, or if not, Lorne can give you my cel phone number. Lorne's good people. Go!"

Gently but firmly he shoved her in the direction of the door. He repeated, very firmly, "Go on. He needs you."

She turned around, and said softly, "Thank you. And, uh, wish me luck."

"Yeah. You're gonna need it. Go!"


	3. Chapter 3

By the time that Kagome ran outside, Inuyasha was long gone. She knew how fast he could move, and she knew her only hope was that he was stomping off at a somewhat human rate of speed rather than racing like lightning.

She didn't know whether to laugh or cry about the mess. Laugh, because he _was _alive and she'd unexpectedly found Shippou too, or cry, because Inuyasha obviously had Issues with a capital "I" that were beyond anything she'd seen from him in the past ... could she do _both _laugh and cry?

The only person in sight was a homeless guy standing at a bus stop -- Kagome hurried over to him. "Did you see a guy with dog ears and silver hair come this way?"

The man pointed down a trash-strewn alleyway, wordlessly. Kagome broke into a run. Shippou was right. She absolutely couldn't let it end on this note. Something was very wrong with Inuyasha, but damnit, she wasn't going to let him go on this sort of bad note.

_He could kill me_, she thought, with a chill, remembering that furious rage. _Soon as he heard _Slayer_, he attacked me. I don't understand that. It wasn't even a rational rage. It was like a switch flipped in his head._

However, she was unsurprised to come around a corner and find him waiting for her. For a moment, she hoped, _Was it all an act? Maybe somebody was in that bar that he was putting on an act for. Now he's going to apologize, and I'll find out what's going on, and ..._

"Knew you'd follow me." He crouched, fighting stance, blatant threat. His eyes weren't quite sane. She stopped short -- she could plant his nose in the dirt again if she had to, but he'd been serious in his threat earlier. She would have to sleep sooner or later, and with his nose, he could find her anywhere in the city.

_Dog-boy never was that subtle. Mostly, he just attacked. Worked, too, most of the time._

She was uncomfortably remembering just _how _vicious he was. Inuyasha wasn't a vampire that she could kill without even breaking a sweat. He was deadly dangerous, and more than a match for her. If not for the rosary, she would be dead now.

"Get lost, Kagome." At least he was using her name. That was something.

"Inuyasha, give me five minutes. Please." If he turned to go, she knew she'd let him -- she could sit him for _that_, too, but again, she was finding herself genuinely frightened of him and of his reaction. Something had pushed him past the point of sanity, and she wasn't suicidal by far.

"Fuck no!" To her dismay he did turn, and she stood frozen between following him and just dropping the matter for now. If he really didn't want to speak to her, did she even have a right to push the matter? It had been five centuries for him, and he obviously barely remembered her. She felt hurt, betrayed. How could he forget?

"Hey!" A voice shouted, at the other end of the alley.

Inuyasha spun back around, fixed her with an amber-eyed accusatory glare, and said several dirty words ending with, "... your buddies!"

"My what?" Two girls were coming from one direction and one from the other.

"Gods-damned Slayers," he growled. The threat was so blatant in his stance that _Sit, boy_! was on the tip of her tongue out of sheer self defense. He continued in a tone of blatant menace, "I knew meeting that damned kitsune was a bad idea. This trap was _your _idea, wasn't it? Or his?"

"Trap?" She said, stunned he'd even _think _that she'd double-cross him. Obviously, it was a trap, but not _her _idea. "I'd never betray you, Inuyasha! That's ridiculous!"

"Then you're a bigger idiot than I thought." He growled. The girls were coming fast -- moving with superhuman speed. "I can take these bitches."

"I'm with you, not against you! Damnit, I left my bows home," Kagome said, mentally cursing her choice of clothing for about the hundredth time that night. If she'd worn her trench-coat she'd have had at least her short-bow slung across her back, hidden along with a handful of arrows from view. But no, she had to be a _girl_. Look good for the cute guy.

The girl on the right was blond, tiny, and very fit -- Kagome's Slayer-instincts were pegging her as the biggest threat. Behind her was a woman with red hair who wasn't running quite so fast or hard. In the other direction, a dark-haired girl, Latina maybe, led the way. She had a similar deadly vibe.

The girls skidded to a halt a few feet from Inuyasha and Kagome. The blond girl said, "Fancy meeting you here again, pretty boy. I'm ready for round two if you are."

"You're _alive_," Inuyasha said, in apparently disbelief. "What does it take to _kill _you, woman?"

The dark-haired woman snickered -- the red haired woman also laughed. Kagome shot her a worried look; the red-head was holding back from the fight. _She's more dangerous than she looks._ Dark-hair said, "More than you've got, demon. Who's the girl?"

"A friend of his," Kagome said, as Inuyasha simultaneously snarled, "She doesn't matter. You're _dead_, Buffy!"

He launched forward, aiming solely for the blond woman. Kagome expected to see her shredded limb from limb. It was very tempting to _Sit _Inuyasha but she held her breath instead. These were _not _friends even if they were apparently human. _Buffy. Spike's Buffy? Does he know she's here?_

She hadn't missed the longing note in Spike's voice when he'd spoken of his friend. If this was Spike's Buffy, she wasn't a bad guy, and Spike thought the world of her. This, Kagome realized, was a complete mess of a fight.

Buffy smoothly stepped aside and kicked Inuyasha in the back as his momentum carried him past her. Inuyasha had reflexes that were unbelievably good; he didn't even stumble -- just turned the blow into more momentum, bounced off the wall, and launched himself back at Buffy.

A word of _power _rang out. Kagome, miko, recognized magic -- big magic, huge magic -- as the red-haired woman threw her hands up and caught Inuyasha in mid leap with power that crackled and snarled across him. He hit the ground with a boneless crash and the Latina woman was on him instantly with a jeweled knife. She stabbed at him; Kagome _heard _the impact as steel met bone, and Inuyasha howled in agony.

"NO!" She leaped into the fight with a swift kick. _Inuyasha, Inuyasha ... _"You can't!"

The woman blocked her blow with a startled oath, but the knife went flying. "Buffy! She's a Slayer!"

"Don't! He's my friend!" Kagome stood over Inuyasha as they circled her. She could hear Inuyasha breathing hard and struggling to rise; that blow wouldn't have stopped him -- she'd seen him keep fighting after his brother punched a fist all the way through his gut -- but the mojo had apparently done something bad to him.

"He's a demon." That came from the red-haired witch. "Do you _know _what he's done?"

"I don't care! I'll _kill _you if you come any closer." Kagome honestly meant it; she'd never contemplated taking another human life before, but for Inuyasha ...

"He's killed twelve of our girls in the last three years, and damn near killed me," the blond woman said, with frank anger in her voice. "I'm all for liking the bad boys ..." this got a snicker from both of the other women, "... but Inuyasha's a bit much, don't you think?"

"Kagome ..." Inuyasha said weakly, "Get out of here. You don't want to be involved in this mess."

_Oh. At least that sounded friendlier. _Was _he acting earlier, or had he decided that she was a friend -- at least in the enemy of my enemy sense? _She glanced back, saw _dark _hair, and a blood-stained t-shirt and her eyes widened. "What did you _do _to him?"

"Umm, Buffy?" That was the red-head. "Look at the demon."

Buffy's eyes flicked over Inuyasha. "Wil?"

"He's a hanyou," Kagome realized that -- for the moment -- they were pausing the fight. She crouched next to Inuyasha, ignored his attempt to swat her hands away, and pressed a hand down over that bleeding chest wound.

"Half demon, Buffy," Willow translated. "Half inu-youkai -- a Japanese dog-demon -- by the look of him. I shut down his demon powers; he turned human. Kinda like a werewolf."

"So?" Buffy said, with a frown. "He's proven he's too dangerous to let live. And he's not like a werewolf; he's quite rational as handy-you whatsit. He's _evil_, Wil. And half dog-demon? Like, _ewww_ in a birds-and-the-bees type thing. There's got to be something illegal about that."

"No!" Kagome balled her fists up, willing to take all three of them on, even though she suspected that this was going to be a losing fight. And she wanted to hit Buffy first for that slur against Inuyasha's mother. "I won't let you!"

"She's a Slayer, Buffy," Willow warned, "Be careful."

There was a sudden blur beside her -- and _Shippou _stood there. Kagome let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding -- she wasn't surprised to see him, and assumed he'd followed her after he'd sent her off in pursuit of Inuyasha. He folded his arms and said, "Normally, ladies, I'd be fighting on your side. But you don't get to kill the hanyou; this has been a fuck-up of Shakespearian proportions and I've had about enough."

_Wow, he's grown up_, Kagome said, recognizing a good bit of _authority _in the kitsune's voice. The little kid had definitely been replaced by a grown man. Terror she hadn't been fully aware of drained out of her. Shippou's confidence was very reassuring. His stance was relaxed; he was more indignant than angry.

"Willow?" Buffy said, "What is he?"

"Kitsune," Shippou said, easily, answering Buffy's question himself.

"Kitsune are generally not evil," Willow said, carefully -- Kagome gave her a mental point for knowing her mythology. There was caution in her voice that bespoke of some awareness of just how much trouble a kitsune could be when provoked, too. "What are you doing with _that _monster?"

"He's an asshat, not a monster. There is, actually, a difference." Shippou sounded somewhat annoyed, more than anything else. Kagome almost laughed at his annoyed tone -- he sounded pissed off in general, and that anger was almost certainly aimed at both Inuyasha _and _the Slayers. "And you guys have to admit you've sorely provoked him."

"Well, well, this actually feels like old times," Spike said, stepping out of the shadow. "'Lo, Buffy. Faith. Red."

Buffy's mouth dropped open, then snapped shut, and her eyes narrowed. "You died."

"Hey, I wrote you a letter telling you I was back." Spike said, defensively. To Kagome's surprise, he stepped in line beside her. and Shippou. "You gonna fight me too? Because we're not letting you touch Rover."

"Spike! He killed Kennedy!" Buffy said, then added, "You died! You jerk!"

Spike snorted. "There's more to that story, I'm betting."

_"She killed Amelia." _Inuyasha's voice held plenty of that hot, furious rage. Kagome actually winced at the note in his voice; the anger there explained a _lot _about his behavior and she suddenly had a glimmering of an idea about what had transpired.

The Slayers had killed someone he had cared about -- and Inuyasha, loyal to a fault, had taken it very, very badly. _Explains why he's a few french fries short of a happy meal at the moment._ _He's not in his right mind now, not thinking clearly, because the grief and rage is clouding every thought he has. _

He tried to stand up. Kagome, sensing an escape might be possible, reached down and hooked her hand under his elbow and hauled him to his feet. He stood swaying and bleeding and looking very, very human and very injured and very angry.

Inuyasha also tensed, clearly contemplating another attack. Both she and Shippou simultaneously flung hands up, stopping him short. Shippou said, "Kagome, get him out of here. We'll catch up with you later. I'll slow them down -- Spike, you with me?"

"Oh, yeah," Spike said, with enthusiasm. "Been awhile since Buffy and I tangled. This'll be fun!"

"She could kill you ..." Inuyasha protested, sounding weak -- but also very worried. That worried note was music to Kagome's ears -- it sounded like the hanyou she knew, who actually did care about other people despite his attempts to make it appear otherwise.

"Nah. Get out of here!" Spike said, "Me'n Sailor can hold them off."

"Spike, what do you think you're ... awk!" Buffy made a startled noise when Spike swung at her. "Spike, damnit!"

"C'mon, Buffy, you want the hanyou, you get to come through me first." Spike's words were taunting, teasing; full of evil mischief. The blond Slayer looked like she'd been simultaneously hit upside the head with a sledgehammer and handed a winning lottery ticket ... she was just standing there now, staring at the vampire. Her friends didn't look much better.

Kagome didn't have to be told twice to scram -- she ducked under Inuyasha's arm and half-carried, half bullied him down the alley. Behind her, Spike was laughing and Buffy was now swearing with volume and vigor to rival Inuyasha at his worst. The other Slayer was _not _happy and most of her fury was now directed at Spike. Who seemed to find it funny, judging by the amused noises and comments he was making.

When Kagome risked a look backwards it was to see Spike body-check the Slayer to stop her from pursuing them; Buffy finally hit Spike and a battle was on, with enthusiasm.

Shippou was tangling with Faith and the witch both -- Kagome almost wished she could stop and watch that fight. She had an idea that Shippou was probably a pretty heavy hitter these days in the battle department. But flight seemed to be a wiser option by far.

It was a curiously liberating feeling to be stronger than Inuyasha, at least temporarily (she hoped the spell was temporary) and to be the one rescuing _his _butt. He was swearing at her and she simply ignored him.

There was a bus at the end of the alley -- she scrambled through the doorway, rummaged in her pockets for the appropriate change to pay both their fares, and then said to the startled bus driver, "Just a flesh wound. He'll be fine."

The man gave Inuyasha's bloody t-shirt another skeptical look, but let them board. Bus drivers in this part of town probably saw it all ... She chivvied him to the back of the nearly empty bus and said, in English, "Sit down."

"If I don't?" He sounded sullen and angry. He hadn't liked being manhandled, but he hadn't had much option.

"You'll be doing a face plant."

He growled something under his breath, but sat the easy way, on his butt. Once sitting, he closed his eyes and leaned back in the seat; by the way he was seated, she didn't think he was hurting all that bad now.

Kagome sprawled into the seat across he aisle from him as the bus pulled away from the curb. For the moment, they were safe -- and she wasn't too worried about Shippou. Or Spike. "What did you do to piss the Slayers off that bad? Spike said they were good guys."

_Spike actually told me some stories about _helping _those women fight evil. _She spared a moment's worry about him doing battle with his allies on their behalf, then decided he probably knew more about the dynamic there than they did.

He was so quiet, for so very long, that she didn't think he was going to answer. When she glanced over at him, he had his head rolled back and he was staring upwards at the ceiling of the bus. She was astonished to see tears brimming in his eyes. "Inuyasha?"

"Fucking Slayers." He blinked rapidly, folded his arms in a way that would have hidden his hands in his sleeves if he'd been wearing his haori, and glared at her.

"Inuyasha? At least tell me why the good guys want you dead."

"I killed a bunch of them." He bit the words out. "Damn near killed the blond, too. Tried. I hope Shippou's going to be okay."

_Twelve humans_, she realized, with a cold chill. Inuyasha, for all his anger and resentment in the past, had never been a killer. _Twelve women known for being on the side of the light, if what Spike told me was right. _"... why?"

He wouldn't meet her eyes now. "They killed Amelia. Shippou better watch himself. I don't want to lose another ... I've lost too many people."

"When did they kill Amelia?" She asked, quietly.

"Maybe ... three years ago." The pain and heartbreak in his voice was audible now. It hurt, still, despite the years. Once, she would have hugged him. Now, his expression was so forbidding that even human she was scared of him. She wouldn't dare touch him; he'd probably object. And he _needed _a hug.

"You don't want to hear this story," he warned, opening his eyes and fixing her with an unblinking look. "It'll hurt you."

"Glad to hear you don't want to _hurt _me, my friend. I was beginning to wonder."

"I don't give a shit about you one way or another. I just don't want to deal with a weepy little girl."

"You're welcome," she snorted -- once, she'd have known it was just attitude talking. Now, she pretended it was, but she really wasn't sure. His words were too raw, too harsh. Still, it was easy to fall back into the old pattern of sniping and sarcasm. "Saving your butt was no trouble at all."

He _should _have responded with a 'Keh!' but all he did was give her a dirty look. She sighed and hid her slowly breaking heart with a pat on the shoulder. "You know I couldn't have just let them have you, Inuyasha. I'm not like that."

"You're going to get hurt, Kagome."

The bus lurched to a stop. She stood up, and said, "Let's get off here and grab a cab. I want to lose those Slayers as thoroughly as we can."

"Yeah, good idea." He forced himself to stand up. "Let's get out of here. Bus smells like piss."

------------------------------

An hour later she pushed the door of her apartment open and hauled a very unhappy hanyou through the doorway, pretty much against his will. He protested loudly, "I don't _want _your help!"

"Fine. When you're recovered enough to get away from me, feel free to take off. As long as you're weak enough that even _I _can shove you around, you get to put up with my presence. Inuyasha, you're acting like I've got rabies or something." She had a good grasp on a handful of his t-shirt -- he'd tried to pull away in the parking lot after the cab had let them out and he hadn't even been able to tear the fabric. Whatever the witch had done to him had taken all his powers away, leaving only a wounded and very angry human man.

"I don't need your help," he repeated, stubbornly. She was equally stubborn -- and more than willing to risk his later wrath if it kept him safe until he recovered his strength. After killing her fair share of demons and vampires over the last three years all on her own, summoning up the guts to manhandle one friend who, in her judgment, _needed _to be manhandled, was nothing.

She marched him into the bathroom and pointed at the toilet. "Sit there. Can you take your shirt off or do I need to get the scissors?"

"It's just a cut." He sounded sullen, and he was glaring at her. But he did sit down on the lid.

"And you're human for however long it takes us to get rid of that spell. Be glad I'm not hauling you off to the emergency room for stitches." She rummaged in the drawers under the bathroom counter to find the first aid supplies that she kept on hand -- she had to patch herself up after fighting things on regular basis.

The problem with taking him to the emergency room for stitches was that she didn't know how long the witch's spell would last -- she could sense the power (and it was white magic) and it didn't have the feel of something permanent. It could last for hours or years. _Hours _would be a bad thing if he reverted back to a demon in the emergency room.

Plus, she seriously doubted he had health insurance. And judging by the way he was moving (fairly easily) and the lack of large amounts of blood, this was probably something she could deal with herself. She _did _have a fair amount of experience with treating minor to moderate injuries.

He gave her a look of protest, but shrugged out of his shirt -- he moved a bit stiffly when he raised his arms, but didn't seem to be in extreme pain from the knife wound. The cut had mostly stopped bleeding; it was deep enough to see a bit of bone but hadn't penetrated between his ribs. The knife had skidded off his ribs, she realized -- if it had slipped between two of them, with him human, he might well be dead now. They'd truly been intending to kill him. As it was, it had cut through a bit of skin and muscle but didn't appear to have hit anything vital or done any lasting damage.

"That was a hit, wasn't it? Like an assassination?" She asked, quietly, sobered. He'd definitely made some very bad enemies.

"Yeah." He said. His lips were a thin, angry line and he glared a hole in the wall for a moment before adding, "Murder would be another word I'd use."

"I'd agree with you there."

"Heh." He gave her a sideways look and she smiled encouragingly and he looked away.

Inuyasha sat in stony silence while she washed the cut out, stuck the edges together with butterfly bandages and dabs of superglue (and she knew from personal experience that superglue did work well, but it _stung_), and then she covered it with a telfa pad and some fabric tape. She completed the dressing with an ace wrap around his thin chest, to hold everything in place and keep some pressure on the cut for awhile -- it was still oozing. "There. All patched up."

Silence.

"You're welcome, Inuyasha."

Grudgingly -- very grudgingly -- "Thank you."

She smiled at him. "See? Good manners aren't so hard."

"Keh."

_Thank god, _she thought, relief at that familiar little noise almost making her knees weak. _My Inuyasha is really in there somewhere. _

He stood up, padded into her living room without a word, and flopped on the couch. Since she'd half expected him to bolt as soon as he was out of grabbing range she was relieved by that -- but he wasn't _stupid_, and he was vulnerable while he was a human. She sighed and started cleaning up the bloody washrags and assorted detritus left over from Inuyasha-repairing, and wiping the blood off the floor where it had dripped.

His t-shirt was a total loss, and his jeans had blood on them. After picking the bathroom up, she retrieved t-shirts and sweats from her dresser; they were actually pretty close to the same size now that she'd grown a few inches in height. He caught the clothes one-handed when she tossed him his way; to her amusement, he _sniffed _them quickly. It was a gesture that was so very much _Inuyasha _that she had to smile. "Let me have your jeans and I'll wash them. I'm just going to toss your shirt."

"Fine." He grunted, shrugging quickly into the shirt and then padding back into the bathroom, presumably to change his pants.

She leaned against the wall, sudden relief surging through her veins. _I've found him. He's hurting and he's broken but he's still Inuyasha and I've found him. _

"You want some ramen?" She called through the door. "I haven't had anything to eat; I'll make dinner. I'm sure you're hungry too."

"I'll eat." He didn't even sound hostile when he said that.

_Yep, that's Inuyasha. _

-------------------

She wasn't the slightest bit surprised when he curled up in a ball on her couch and fell asleep minutes after eating. By his reactions, and his general attitude of incredible suspicion and no small amount of fear, he'd been on edge for a long time -- she hoped he felt safe in her home, though she suspected the blood loss and pain of his injury, along with being hit with a fairly significant spell, had pushed him too far. Even Inuyasha had emotional and physical limits.

_The Slayers don't know my name, much less where I live. I think we're safe for the night. Though I wish I knew that Shippou and Spike were okay._

Kagome covered him with a blanket, then just regarded him with a fond smile for a moment. Asleep, his face had relaxed and he looked so very, very familiar -- his human-dark hair was coming loose from its clip and fell around him in ebony waves. She'd seen the angles of his cheekbones, the curves of his lips, and his long eyelashes in her dreams for years.

He muttered and twitched a bit, then reached up and yanked the covers over his head. _Hiding_, she thought, and her heart broke all anew.

_Oh, Inuyasha, my friend, I wish I could make it all better for you. You never deserved to be hated and feared; you never deserved any of the crap that's happened to you. _

After watching him sleep for half an hour, her own thoughts in a muddle, she finally turned into the bedroom and crawled into bed. It was getting late, and she had work and school tomorrow. Mundane things. _Maybe I'll call in -- I'm scared if I leave, he won't be here when I get back. _

Hell, she was scared to go to _sleep _-- he might slip out before she woke.

Perhaps it was thoughts of Inuyasha escaping that caused her to sleep lightly despite her own fears. A few hours after she drifted off into restless, dream-filled slumber, a noise woke her. Blinking, muzzy, she stared at the ceiling and identified it as: _Shower running_.

_Huh. Did dog-boy finally learn to like baths? _

She lifted her head from the pillow and realized it was around one AM.

_Okay, that's weird. _

She blinked and sat up, then kicked her way free of the covers and went to investigate. Inuyasha was acting sufficiently odd to have her paranoia kicked up to the highest notch possible. She knocked on the bathroom door and asked, "You okay?"

No answer.

She glanced at the couch -- no, he was definitely in the bathroom. The couch was empty except for the quilt. "Inuyasha? You better tell me you're okay or I'm coming in."

Silence.

Cautiously, she pushed the door open a crack and peered inside.

Through the glass enclosure she could see that he was sitting in the shower, apparently naked, and she almost shut the door with a squeak. Then she saw _red_ and shoved the door open so hard it hit the wall and made a dent. To her relief, he _jumped _at that noise, motion obvious through the fogged and water-stained glass.

But there was definitely _red _in the water that was swirling around him and down the drain.

"Inuyasha!"

Not caring that he was naked, she yanked open the glass and hissed in dismay. He looked up at her, expression utterly unreadable. He had a small paring knife from her kitchen drawer in one hand, and blood trickled freely down his arm. The shower was ice cold -- he'd been sitting there for a long, long time she thought.

"Get up." She grabbed him by the arm and used quite a bit of Slayer strength to yank him to his feet. "What kind of stunt are you pulling?"

The cut was _shallow_, she realized -- he'd traced the line of a vein, but hadn't cut deep enough to sever it. It was just a bloody scratch. He was shivering violently and he stared at her now with blue lips and eyes that were devoid of anger: now they held only incredible grief and sorrow and terrible age. His _eyes _showed his years, she realized with a chill. He'd been thinking about slashing his wrist, but he hadn't actually gone through with anything.

"I could do it right now," he whispered, "I can't, as a hanyou. But I could do it now. I could end it. I could be with her."

"Who? Kikyou?" She reached up, grabbed a towel off the rack, and thrust it at him. He realized he was naked, and yanked it around his waist.

"Amelia." He said it like a caress. A chill ran down her back at that tone; he'd _loved _this woman. "Kagome, leave me be. You don't want to get involved. You're only going to get hurt, you're only going to hear things you don't want to. I don't need your help."

"Okay, Inuyasha? My _best friend _is sitting in a tub contemplating killing himself and you expect me to just walk away? Get real." Inside, she was panicking. This wasn't the Inuyasha she'd known -- oh, Inuyasha could brood with the best of them, and his temper was legendary, but he'd never been suicidal. Ever. Something truly terrible had happened to him.

Silence was his only answer. But he gave her a wary sideways look that said he was thinking about that statement.

"Get dressed." She grabbed the knife from his hand. Fear turned to anger -- he _dare _he think of doing this. Didn't he understand how much it would hurt her? "You have two minutes or I will _dress you myself_. Possibly after I sit you unconscious."

He blinked. And he still said nothing, which scared her -- she wanted him to argue, to rage, to throw things. She wanted angry, snarky Inuyasha to surface. She'd rather he be coming at her in a homicidal fury than standing there shivering and avoiding her gaze. Inuyasha was one of the proudest men she'd ever known, and right now, he looked like a little lost boy. _Gods. I didn't realize how bad it was, though I should have -- he's no killer, but he's killed humans and he tried for me. He's been pushed over the edge by something. He's _broken

The furious rage, earlier, had been just as out of character for him as this. This grief was the truth behind that anger -- he was so badly wounded that she was having a hard time seeing her Inuyasha in this shattered shell of the man she'd once known. Anger was only a symptom of incredible soul-searing despair.

She sighed. "Inuyasha, whatever it is -- I'm your friend. There isn't a thing in this world that will ever change that."

He blinked at her again, shuddered with sudden cold, and reached for the clothes.

"Two minutes." She shut the bathroom door, padded into the kitchen, and started a pot of coffee. It was just starting to percolate when he emerged, dressed, the towel pressed against his arm.

"Sit." She pointed at the couch -- she said the word in English to avoid unfortunate accidents with the rosary.

He sat down, still not saying much, and yanked the quilt around his shoulders.

"Do you drink coffee now?"

"Blech."

She wasn't surprised by that, somehow. He didn't like strongly favored foods. "Want tea?"

No answer, which she took to be a yes -- or at least, not a negative. She set a tea pot on the stove and regarded him with no small amount of panic in her heart. She really didn't even know where to begin. He was just _sitting _there.

She busied herself in the kitchen, thinking furiously. This Amelia seemed to be at the heart of everything. He obviously had cared about her deeply.

"Kagome," Inuyasha said after several moments of silence, "Why are you doing this?"

"Because you're my friend, you idiot." The answer -- and the annoyed tone she delivered it in -- came naturally. She didn't even have to think about it.

"You probably don't want to hear this," he said, quietly, "But it's been five centuries for me. I ... I know we were friends once, but it was a long, long time ago."

"I sorta got that part when you didn't recognize me."

"What did you expect?" He lifted an eyebrow at her.

"It's only been a few years for me. _I _remember, even if you don't." She poured him a cup of green tea and made herself a coffee, then carried both over. "Here. Drink."

"Kagome, I'm not sure you really understand." He sipped the tea. "I ... I remember your name, and a few things, but mostly, those days are as faded as a dream. When I see you, it's there's a sense of deja vu and no more than that. I remember we fought a lot and I liked arguing with you for some reason, but I don't know what the arguments were about. I remember Shippou was just a tot, but I couldn't tell you what he looked like. I couldn't tell you what any of them looked like. And -- there aren't any of the feelings there that I think you want me to have. I _remember _loving you, but I don't now. It's just been too long."

"Then we'll have to start over anew as friends." She was amazed at how calm she sounded -- and how much his confession hurt. It made sense, but it didn't suit her dreams very well of a happily every after ending. She settled onto the couch beside him. "Inuyasha, when you're in a better state of mind _then _you can order me out of your life if you want and I will go. Right now, you need someone. Shippou said you don't have _anyone._" She paused. "Though Shippou cares about you a lot, I think."

"Brat."

"That hasn't changed much?" She asked, smiling into her coffee, because she liked hearing the snark creep back into his voice.

"He's just harder to beat up now."

Despite everything, that made her laugh softly -- because _that _sounded like Inuyasha. There were flickers of the man she knew lurking in there somewhere. Maybe with time and care, she could coax the old Inuyasha back out.

He sighed. There was a hitch and a hiccup in that tiny little noise that made her look up, suddenly.

His eyes were brimming with tears. "Damnit." He wiped at them with the back of his hand. "Damnit, damnit, damnit." He hit himself in the forehead with the heel of his hand. "Stop crying, idiot!"

"'S okay." She twisted around to face him and pulled him closer to her with an insistent tug on his shoulders. He resisted, for an instant, face twisting away from her, clearly not wanting any comfort, and she said firmly, "Inuyasha, come here."

Then, suddenly, he caved. With an almost desperate lunge he grabbed hold of her. He shuddered, making no noise, just trembling and shaking and heaving great gasping breaths. She wrapped her arms around him and just held him as he clutched at her pajamas. He was crying hard -- she could feel her shoulder growing wet with soundless tears. His hair was still soaking wet, and he was shivering as well. She reached over and tugged the quilt around both of them.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "Whatever happened, I'm so, so sorry."

Slowly, the tension eased from his wiry frame. He hiccupped and muttered something under his breath.

"C'mere." She shifted her position a bit for comfort. "You're my friend, Inuyasha. You might have forgotten, but I remember for both of us."

He heaved a long, ragged, shaky sigh and moved a bit on the couch -- she thought he was going to pull away, then she realized he was simply getting into a better position against her. His arms went around _her _in a sudden fierce hug. "I do know that I was missing you terribly for years and years, Kagome. Now I know why."

"Inuyasha, it's okay, I think. We can start over as friends." She paused, and tried to lighten the mood a bit by saying, "Hey, if you don't remember all the times I 'sat' you that might be to my advantage!"

"I remember _that_," he growled. Then he paused, and said, "You're hurt, though. I ..." He swallowed; she heard it. "I don't think I like seeing you hurt because of me."

That was an Inuyasha-apology if she'd ever heard one.

"So do you want to tell me about Amelia?" She asked, quietly. "You don't have to if you don't want to, but ..."

His hand stroked her hair, startling her. He seemed to realize he was doing it, too, and quickly put it back on her shoulder. "Amelia was ... Kagome, I know you're not going to like hearing this, but she was my all and my everything. The center of my world. The only person I could rely on, the only person who was always there for me, who never hurt me, who ... who never left me! She saw me for who I am."

"I'm glad you found someone like that," Kagome said, honestly. _I never left you, you sent me away. _"I didn't exactly expect you to pine away to nothing or wait five hundred years."

"She was my wife," Inuyasha whispered into her hair. "She was my wife, we were married four hundred and fifty years, and she died a senseless death. The Slayers killed her and it was my fault because I didn't listen to her when she told me to back down when I got in an argument with the Slayers over something completely stupid. _You _would have just 'sat' me until I came to my senses."

"Four hundred and fifty years?" She said, stunned. She'd assumed, for some reason, that Amelia was a short-term thing. Recent. Gods. The depth of his devotion ... of their shared love ... she swallowed hard.

He pulled away, suddenly, drawing into himself. "I was wrong, Kagome. I can't ... I can't even talk about it."

"Inuyasha, I'm _sorry_."

"It was three years ago and it hurts as much as the day it happened." He leaned back, and said, bitterly, "I wish I could just join her, you know? It would be so much easier." He jerked his chin at the door to the bathroom. "Only thing that stopped me tonight was the knowledge that her death is yet un-avenged while that blond bitch still lives. That, and I didn't want you to find me like that after you've been so caring to me and I haven't exactly been grateful. But sometimes ... sometimes I think it just doesn't matter. That I'm just tired of fighting. I'm seven hundred years old, Kagome, and sometimes I'm just so _tired_."

She tried to find something to say, but the only thing she could think of was, "I'm so very sorry."

"Feh. So am I." Tears apparently over, he stood up, walked into the kitchen, and dumped the remains of his tea into the sink.

"Kagome?" He said, looking at her across the breakfast bar. "Umm ..."

"You're welcome, Inuyasha." Though she didn't think she'd helped all that much, really. Knowing at least some of the story behind his grief didn't change much. And she hadn't a clue what to do now.


	4. Chapter 4

A Slayer of Nightmares

------------------------

Chapter four

-----------------------

"Hey. Kagome. Get up."

Kagome opened one eye. It was dawn, by the ambient light in her bedroom.

A pair of amber eyes were inches from hers. She blinked, remembered _Inuyasha_, and managed not to scream. Adrenalin thrummed through her veins in shock, though, and something of her Slayer instincts to hit and kill must have shown on her face because he hastily withdrew and stood with his arms folded near the door. "You need to let the vampire in."

Vampire. Spike. Morning -- sunrise. Vampire go crispy in direct sunlight. Vampire need an invitation to get inside out of the sun. She made a rapid connect-the-dots assumption, and lifted her head from the pillow and noted that the sun was definitely up. She could hear swearing and Shippou's voice, "Here! Wrap up in this!"

"Spike! Come in!" She shouted -- then only after the fact did she question the wisdom of inviting a vampire into her home. Particularly one that could fight at the level she'd seen last night. _Nah, it's Spike. I think I trust him. And I can always disinvite him later; I'm sure I could figure out how to do that if I had to._

"Bloody hell," Spike's British accent growled from the living room, a second later. Spurred into action, she kicked her way free of the covers and stumbled into the living room in her pajamas.

Spike was faintly smoking in the middle of her living room, looking disgruntled and thoroughly disreputable -- and he'd apparently been cowering under her quilt, because he still had it in his arms. He had a black eye and a fat lip and blood smeared on his face. Shippou, next to him, looked completely unscathed. Both men were grinning like loons, and she got a distinct whiff of alcohol rolling off one or both of the pair.

"Damned trickster." Inuyasha growled at Shippou. "You said you needed my help."

"I lied." Shippou said, shrugging. "It was worth it, ne? Kagome-chan cares about you and you'd never have come if you knew the truth."

Inuyasha gave Shippou a one-finger salute. "I also got turned human because of you. The Slayers have no idea where my house is; it's owned by a trust. But I'm sure they've been watching the demon bars for me. Might even have a few paid informers. So fuck you!"

"You couldn't handle me," Shippou shot back, with a laugh of open amusement, causing Spike to cackle and Kagome to suffer a severe case of mental whiplash. _This _was Shippou? This roguish young man was the kitsune she'd known as an adorable child? "Sides, the spell will wear off eventually, no harm done, right?"

Inuyasha stalked into the kitchen and started messing around with her teapot.

"Hey, make me a cup, if you're making tea ..." Spike said, a request that only got him a look from Inuyasha.

"So did you guys deal with the Slayers?" Kagome asked.

Spike snorted. "You need to go talk to Buffy, Kagome. And you," he pointed at Inuyasha who stiffened but didn't turn around, "I'll kill you myself if you don't shape up. You got a soul, Rover, but that don't mean you're nec'ly on the side of the light."

"Don't call me _Rover_." His tone of voice that made Kagome wince. The last thing she needed was for Spike and Inuyasha to end up fighting. And it would be perfectly in character for Inuyasha to light into an ally -- unfortunately, she didn't know how Spike would react.

"By the way," Kagome said, trying to smooth things over a bit, "Inuyasha, this is Spike. He's the one who found you for me. Say thank you."

"Feh." He added water to the teapot and put it on the stove.

"That's 'thank you' in Inuyasha-speak," Shippou put in.

"Yeah, I figured. Just make sure I don't regret doing this, Rover." Spike snorted.

"Don't _call me Rover_!" Inuyasha whirled around and held the teapot up like he was going to throw it. Even in human form, he could look pretty menacing when he was angry.

"Probably best if you don't call him that," Kagome said, mildly. "He doesn't like dog references much."

Spike looked like he was about to snap back at Inuyasha for a moment. She glared at the vampire, and he sighed, and said, "Well, sorrrrry."

It wasn't exactly a sincere apology, but then again, given the target of said 'sorry' was almost physically incapable of saying the word himself, she figured it would do. "Okay, what do we do now? We need to get the Slayers off his back."

Inuyasha turned his back to the discussion again. She saw him get out a box of earl grey from the top shelf and set about making a pot.

"Buffy's got a serious mad-on over Inuyasha if she's hunting him with both Faith and Willow -- Willow's one hell of a witch -- though actually, given it was Kennedy that he killed first, Wil might have demanded to play on this one. They were lovers." Spike mused, pulling a kitchen chair out from the table and straddling it backwards. "That's not to say either of them couldn't forgive Inuyasha, 'cause I've seen them forgive people for some major things before." He eyed Inuyasha for a moment, then said, "Kennedy was a good guy, fighting the good fight, Inuyasha. I can't say as I'm happy to hear you were behind her death either."

Inuyasha didn't even flinch. He just fixed Spike with a level gaze and said, "She killed my wife."

"Which is why I'm not exactly siding with the Slayers on this one." Spike said, giving Inuyasha a flat, disgusted glance that said, isn't-this-obvious? Then he sighed, and said to Kagome, "I asked around; word is on the street that they're viewing him as a minor big-bad and devoting quite a few resources to taking him out. Inuyasha, you've made a _bad _enemy in the Slayers."

"They made a bad enemy in me!" His retort was instinctive, a spinal reflex -- Kagome would only have been surprised if he _hadn't _postured a bit in response to a threat.

"Yeah, well, you're the demon and they're generally considered the good guys." Spike pointed out, sharply. And you've killed a bunch of them. "Go do the math, Rapunzel."

_Rapunzel. _Kagome bit back a laugh and waited for Inuyasha's explosion. Curiously, it didn't come ... He just poured cups of coffee from the pot that was still in the coffee machine.

"I don't understand why you're helping us either, Spike," Kagome said, keeping her eyes on Inuyasha. He was being domestic, making tea and coffee (though the coffee was going to be vile) and it rather worried her simply because it was such strange behavior. On the other hand, he'd had five hundred years to learn something approximating how to be nice to friends. "I know you've decided we're the good guys in this -- but Buffy and her Slayers are your friends, I thought."

He gave her a sideways look and said, "Buffy's a friend. She's an amazing woman. The rest of her people ... I don't trust 'em. And I ain't fighting with them unless I've got good reason, not anymore. I'd trust my damned grandsire before I'd trust them ... They've tried to kill me more'n once, 'cause of what I am. They don't trust me. Don't like me. And I ain't forgotten that. -- I bloody hell _saved the world_, more'n once, at their side. And they still wouldn't dream of letting me into their little in club."

This little speech got a frown in Spike's direction from Inuyasha, and the hanyou hunched his shoulders a bit. He had clearly heard those words.

Inuyasha walked over and handed mugs of coffee to Kagome and Shippou. Kagome sniffed her coffee. She could tell simply by the odor that it was a bit old now. On the other hand, she suspected this was as close to a _thank you _as the hanyou was going come. Even a complete moron would have to realize she was running on rather minimal sleep.

"Thank you, Inuyasha. I appreciate it." If he didn't drink coffee he couldn't appreciate the vile nature of coffee that had been on the burner since one AM the previous night ... which was only three and a half hours, she realized suddenly. Fighting the urge to hold her nose, she swallowed several gulps of the now very bitter and oily black liquid. She needed it, nasty or not!

Shippou apparently felt the same way; he was downing his cup without comment.

Spike suddenly reached out and caught Inuyasha's hand. Inuyasha tried to pull free, and he made a noise very like a growl despite his human throat. Spike ignored that, and traced the deep scratch on Inuyasha's wrist with one finger. "You know," Spike said, conversationally, "There's no guarantee that you'll be with her if you die that way."

Inuyasha reclaimed his wrist and glared.

"I heard about Amelia, from a few people on the street who are friends with the Slayers. Been asking around, I'm nosy that way," Spike said. His voice had gone soft and urgent, curiously gentle; there was none of the rough-around-the-edges tough guy in his demeanor now. "I'm sorry about what happened. It sounds like it was a major fuckup on the Slayer's part. But believe me, you kill yourself 'cause you're missing her? No guarantee you end up with on a cloud with harps and angels and your lady love. Dying might be worse than living. All depends on where you end up."

"Keh."

"Think about it." Spike said, shortly. "I've seen hell. More'n once. Your Amelia isn't the woman I think she was if she's there." He paused, and sighed, and added, "Sometimes, you have to find things to live for. You got a good start right there."

He pointed at Kagome, who blinked in surprise at being singled out by the vampire, and blushed.

Silence, from Inuyasha. But he also shot Kagome a look -- one that she absolutely couldn't read. Suddenly, though, he turned his back to her and stalked stiffly to the window. It was funny how even as a human she could see the demon in him. He was pissed off and angry.

Spike said, voice urgent, "Friends like that are bloody special. Trust me, I know. Do her justice, Rapunzel."

Speech apparently over, Spike nodded at Kagome. "Care if I crash on your couch today? Promise I don't bite. Or snore."

"Or breathe," Inuyasha muttered under his breath.

"Yeah, fine." He couldn't leave anyway. Kagome didn't have an issue with it at all; she liked the vampire. _He's good people, that's for sure. I hope he's not in too much trouble with Buffy. Because he does care about her a great deal._

She contemplated what would have happened if she'd ever pulled a stunt like he'd done with Buffy on Sango and Miroku and couldn't even imagine their reactions.

"I want to go by my place today," Inuyasha said, suddenly. "Need clean clothes 'n shit."

Kagome realized, _He's staying here. He's just assuming he can stay with me, which is awesome. I must have gotten something through that thick skull of his last night, or he's subconsciously remembering what things were like between us once ..._ _He's trusting me. More than that, he's accepting that it's okay for me to help him -- and okay for him to accept that help._

Relief surged through her veins. Somehow, some way, she was starting to reach him. Thank God. It was a huge step in the right direction.

"Sure, I'll drive you over. The Slayers don't know where you live, do they?"

"No." Scorn, there. "I'm not that stupid. Everything's in the name of a trust, and it can't be traced back to me. And there ain't a Slayer alive who could track me without me knowing about it."

"Don't underestimate Buffy," Spike said, suddenly, to Inuyasha. "She's a bad one to have as an enemy. Take it from me. I love the woman, and I've seen her at her best and worst. You're up a creek right now, bud. She's gunning for you bad, 'n you best skip town until she cools off. I would. Hell, I have! That woman's taken out a _god_ and closed a Hellmouth!"

"If you love her, why are you helping me?" Inuyasha asked, doubt and suspicion filling his voice. Despite what Spike had already said, Inuyasha clearly didn't trust him. "Seems pretty much a betrayal even if you don't like her friends."

Spike snorted a laugh. "If the world was ending or summat, sure, I'd be helping her. Give my life for her, I would -- have, actually. Her dog, her champion, all that crap. Don't mind fighting a bit with her for old time's sake, though, when she's in the wrong and it ain't the end of the world. 'Sides, turn about's fair play. Her people wouldn't help _us _when the stakes were nigh apocalyptic. I ain't forgotten that. And she didn't answer my letter."

Kagome thought the last bit was the truth of why he'd chosen to side with them. There was hurt, there. She asked quietly, "Are you sure she got it?"

"Nah. But even so, she had to know years ago I was alive. Her network's pretty good, and I haven't exactly been working undercover. I've even had a friendly chats with the local Slayers so's they know who I am. I'm sure she gets regular bulletins on what I'm up to." Spike shrugged nonchalantly, but Kagome wasn't fooled -- she saw the darkness lurking in his blue eyes. "Anyway, she's never loved me back and I guess these days she doesn't need me anymore. I've been, at best, a friend; most of the time, just a useful tool for her. Her strongest fighter and all that."

_Ouch. _Kagome's heart went out to him; she understood that feeling rather well. Heh. _Shard-detector on two legs here. _Forgotten _shard detector._

On the other hand, the other Slayer had looked positively stunned when Spike had appeared. _I'm not so sure that was just shock that he was fighting against her that made her look like that. I think I want to talk to this woman._

"Anyway. Speaking of Buffy, Chibi, you should go have a sit-down talk with her about Rapunzel," Spike said, mirroring her thoughts, "You're a Slayer and that counts for something. She might listen to you."

"No." Inuyasha said, firmly. "I won't have her walk into danger like that on my behalf."

Spike scoffed, "With Buffy? She's not going to kill another Slayer. Or even hurt her. It's some sort of sisterhood thing. Buffy might kick _my _ass when we show up. But she won't stake me."

"You can't be sure of that." Inuyasha's voice was dangerous -- brittle and tense and far too quiet. In the next breath, he'd be yelling.

Kagome said, before he could blow up, "Inuyasha, we'll talk about it later. Let's go get your stuff now."

--------------------------

It turned out to be a two hour drive to Inuyasha's home -- he had a house up in the hills, in a rather nice area. She drove mostly in silence, occasionally giving him a sideways glance. It was weird to see human-Inuyasha by daylight. His dark hair, long and loose this morning rather than caught back in a tail, caught the sunlight with glossy highlights -- but somehow, his human form looked years older than she remembered where his hanyou form had not aged at all. Something about his eyes, and the planes of his face, she decided -- his cheekbones were sharper, and his jaw stronger. He looked like a grown man.

He was quiet, pensive; once, when she looked over at him he was already looking in her direction, he said low and surly, "Whatcha looking at, miko?"

Given that he was looking in _her _direction first before she'd glanced his way, she felt this was rather unfair. She shot back, words coming from pure instinct, "Five centuries and still no manners. It's amazing."

A grunt, from Inuyasha, in response. Almost, but not quite, a _Keh_ noise.

She risked another look in his direction. He was staring straight ahead, now, mouth set in a thin line, arms folded. After a long moment, he said, "Turn right, here, into the driveway."

The driveway had a keypad to open the gate. To her surprise, he told her, "Code number's 12021. If you ever need a place that's safe, my entire property's seriously warded against demons -- only Shippou can get past the protections on this place. Amelia always liked him."

"Umm. Thank you." She leaned out and punched the numbers and the gate opened smoothly inward. She was genuinely shocked he'd given her the number -- maybe some part of him still cared about her. Or maybe he was responding to her _now_. To the friendship she was more than willing to extend to him.

"Keh." He stared out the window, not glancing her way.

The driveway was at least a mile and a half long -- a narrow road, with an asphalt surface that was long crumbled and potholed and in need of repair. It skirted the side of a canyon, overhung by eucalyptus and oak, then climbed up to the top of a ridge.

There was a house there -- an old territorial, very large, with a wrap-around porch, a metal roof, and an expansive view of the city and (far away in the distance) a bit of ocean. A few live oaks shaded it. She recognized it from the photograph; a corner of the house had been in the background.

"This is yours?" She said, somewhat surprised. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but surely not something like this.

"Has been for almost a century. We've owned it since it was new ... Amelia and I. It's for sale." He got out of the car. "Too many damn memories, but I won't sell it to a developer. Got a few hundred acres here. Got to go to someone who'll love it as much as she did."

_Amelia_. His voice had softened as he said her name, and gone wistful and somehow very weary. She thought Amelia hadn't been the only person who'd been happy here. The home was isolated, protected from strangers, surrounded by natural beauty and wilderness. He could live here undisturbed by both demon and hanyou.

The house was warded, over and above the protection on the land itself -- she could feel powerful magic as she approached. It felt good and pure. It let them pass, but her skin prickled from the power for a moment and she felt like she was being watched closely for minutes after that.

Inuyasha saw her face and said, "Amelia cast the spells on this house. Nothing evil can come here. She was good at protection magic."

The inside of the house was neat as a pin, except that everything downstairs was covered over in a fine sheen of dust. "Wait here," he said, brusquely, in the living room. He padded up a flight of stairs and disappeared.

The room had definitely been decorated by someone other than Inuyasha -- almost certainly, his beloved Amelia. He hadn't changed anything from the day she'd died, Kagome thought.

It was homey -- the couch had a quilt thrown over it, there were photographs of ocean scenery on the walls, and the fireplace had an unlit and partially burnt rack of candles placed in itBy the amount of cobwebs on the candles, they hadn't been lit in years.

She walked around the room, seeing the evidence of Inuyasha's life here. There were books on shelves -- in both English and Japanese. Someone had liked science fiction, and had good taste in authors. There were also a number of books on history -- both historical novels and non-fiction books. Plus, almost inevitably, there were several dozen books on demons and monsters and magic. The real stuff, judging from what little she personally knew.

She wondered who the reader was -- Inuyasha had never struck her as the reading type, back in feudal Japan, but maybe a few centuries had mellowed him out. She knew he could read and write to a basic level of literacy, likely taught by his noble-born mother, but she seriously doubted he'd ever opened a book for pure enjoyment in her time. On the other hand, he was plenty smart and five centuries was a long time to go without picking up at least a few new hobbies. Reading might have been one of them.

"Fuck!" Came from upstairs. "Where'd I put my fucking ..." He trailed off, but she shook her head. The books were Amelia's, almost certainly. Mellowed out? Hardly.

She pictured Inuyasha curled up with a good book on the couch, relaxing. She could _see _it. She didn't know if it had ever happened, but maybe he'd found peace with Amelia, and time to relax and let his guard down and enjoy life. She could hope.

She continued her inspection of the room. They had racks and racks of DVDs -- old movies, new movies, TV series, cartoons, foreign movies -- thousands of titles, in shelves all along one wall. She was amused by that, remembering Inuyasha's reaction the first time he'd seen a TV. _Bet some of these are his ... I can see him learning to like TV eventually._

Music, too -- he had an amazing collection, covering a broad range of tastes, though contrary to the heavy-metal t-shirt he'd been wearing, the bulk of the collection seemed consist of artists that were easy on the ears. That made sense, given his sensitive hearing.

Only belatedly did she notice the single photograph over the fireplace mantle. It was an 8X10 print of Inuyasha and a woman ... Kagome, almost not wanting to look, walked over to it.

The woman didn't even begin to look human. She had a wild mane of fire-red hair, cheekbones so sharp they could cut glass, pointed ears, long, long fingers, a narrow mouth (with fangs), and eyes the color of green glass. She had a stunning alien beauty but Kagome couldn't even begin to guess what race she belonged to. Nothing she'd ever seen in Japan. Amelia wasn't a Japanese name, either. She wondered if she'd ever hear that story. Maybe Shippou knew how Inuyasha had met her.

In the photo, Inuyasha stood behind Amelia, hugging her from behind, chin on her shoulder, grinning broadly -- Kagome had seldom seen him with that particular expression on his face, though it suited him well to be that happy. The woman had an easy smile on her face, an expression that spoke of deep love and great trust, and she was leaning back, utterly comfortable and relaxed in his arms. Kagome sighed silently. _Lady, at least I think, by that expression, you know what you had in Inuyasha. There's that, at least. _

She amused herself a few more moments by checking the view out each window of the downstairs -- it was an amazing house, with expansive views of city and hills in all directions. The mountains that loomed above the hill were heavily covered in snow still.

There was no further sound from upstairs.

With a chill, she remembered finding him in the bathtub, and decided that she needed to check on him whether he liked it or not. She padded up the stairs, where she found two bedrooms, an office, (doors all open) and one bathroom.

The master bedroom had a lived-in look at odds with the dusty rest of the house. It was cluttered, a bit messy, with an open hamper in one corner, a few dirty dishes on an end table by the bed, and an overflowing trash can. Not filthy, but not neat and tidy, either. There were more pictures of Amelia on a shelf -- a bit of a shrine, really, complete with candles too. She was surprised to see Shippou in one of the pictures -- he and Amelia were sitting on the porch, both laughing. Shippou's hair was red in the photo, not black, making him much more recognizable. She wondered if the person to take the photograph had been Inuyasha, or somebody else who'd known them all.

There was a duffel bag on the bed -- it was stuffed with a couple of changes of clothes, plus a very familiar red haori. So he still had it, even if he chose not to wear it daily. She brushed her fingers over the rough fabric, remember all the times Inuyasha had hugged her while wearing it, or had draped it around her shoulders for her protection.

And ... Tessaiga. The battered old sword was laying on the bed next to the duffel bag. She'd wondered if he still had it -- and she had wondered how he was keeping his demon half in check without carrying it with him. Obviously, that wasn't such a problem now, but it had been, in the past. Yet he didn't seem to carry the sword with him anymore. Perhaps it was too obvious -- more of a liability than an asset. He could pass for human as long as people didn't look too close, but wearing a sword would draw scrutiny he wouldn't want..

She picked it up, feeling the weight and heft and _age _of the thing. It tingled in her fingers, a flare of power that was almost like a greeting. The sword knew her.

"Remember when you pulled it from the stone?" Inuyasha's voice asked, quietly. She jumped a bit -- there was a balcony off the bedroom and he quietly stepped in through the doorway.

"You were fighting your brother. Do _you _remember?" She turned to face him.

"Yeah, a bit, now. " He ran a hand over his head, and scratched where his ear would be if he were in hanyou form. "I remembered when I saw you standing there with it. You were so brave, and so damn stupid. But I wouldn't have ever learned how the sword worked if you hadn't been with me that day. My brother probably would have killed me."

"How is that you don't need it anymore?" She asked.

"Amelia." Inuyasha said. "She was some sort of hanyou from Europe -- we never did figure out what kind, and she never knew her parents. She was very powerful; her demon side was _way _worse than mine, and she had to learn to control it all on her own before she ever met me. She taught me a few techniques ... And growing up helped, I guess. Don't get me wrong -- you can still get a rise out of my demon with sufficient provocation. Buffy could tell you all about that! But I can control it, now, somewhat."

That _somewhat _wasn't as reassuring as she would have liked.

He stepped closer to take the sword from her, and she saw something. "Hey, Inuyasha, you've got silver roots."

He touched his hair. "Keh. Don't feel any different. Feel like shit, actually."

"Yeah, well, neither of us got much sleep last night." She smiled at him.

"Don't need sleep." He stuffed Tessaiga unceremoniously into the duffle bag -- it was just short enough to fit -- and zipped it up.

"You're _human_ for now," she pointed out. "Though if your hair's coming in white I'm thinking maybe the spell's wearing off."

He ran his hand over his hair, then scowled at his fingers. "I'm _shedding_," he said, sounding absolutely indignant. His fingers were covered in loose hairs. Then in a softer voice he said, "What did that witch _do _to me?"

She squinted at him, using miko sight. What she saw was disturbing -- he looked _less_. The spell was fading, but so was he.

"Inuyasha, come here for a second."

"Huh?"

She caught his chin in her fingers, and tipped his face down so she could see it very clearly. Up close, he didn't look quite as young has he did from a distance, even allowing for the changes that time had made on the bones of his human face -- he had lines around the corners of his eyes and mouth. But she could also feel lines of power wrapped around him -- could see them, as a fine net of energy across his skin, when she focused very hard. The spell was inhibiting his demon side, and it was very, very powerful and done by an incredibly talented witch with great technical skills. His youki was actually powering the spell that was keeping him wholly human.

It was far beyond what she could do. And it was _white _magic.

"What are you doing, woman! You're creeping me out." He finally swatted her hand away.

"Spell's doing something to you," she said, quietly. "It's restraining your demon, Inuyasha, but it's _doing _something to you."

"It's wearing off, though," he said, uncertainly. He ran a hand through his long hair, then fell went quiet and still, staring at his hands. He frowned, suddenly, and looked up at her with great uncertainty in his eyes.

She reached up and touched his hair, echoing his earlier gesture. The trace of white roots ought to be evidence of the spell ending. But she, too, came away with dozens of fine ebony hairs.

"Let go." He stepped away, not liking the familiarity. "I'm fine."

_Maybe, _Kagome thought. _I hope so._


	5. Chapter 5

Slayer of Nightmares

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Chapter 5

------------------

"So who's idea was this again?" Buffy said, sounding very tired and not perky at all.

Willow pointed at Xander, who was seated on the hotel room desk.

Xander pointed at Faith, who was leaning against the wall.

Faith pointed at Andrew, who'd straddled a chair backwards -- a pose that would have been much cooler if he didn't currently have a pair of dorky horn-rimmed sunglasses perched, forgotten, on the top of his head.

Andrew pointed at Giles. Giles adjusted his glasses, cleared his throat, and said, "We didn't think ..."

"Yeah. You didn't _think_." Buffy cut him off. "Spike's alive and you didn't _think _I should know and this pisses me off a big fat huge amount."

"Technically, he's not alive ..." Andrew tried to interject. Buffy's rather dangerous glare shut him up so quickly that he squeaked.

"How _long _have you known this?" Buffy said, teeth gritted. She wanted to scream, to throw things, to howl her betrayed anger at them. How _dare _they keep the fact that Spike was alive from her. After all he'd done, after everything, after he'd _saved the world _more than once at her side, he still wasn't trusted. It made her want to rage and ... cry.

On the other hand, given all the evidence that Spike had chosen to side _against _her and with the current Big Bad, maybe they'd been right. Or not. _She _had faith in Spike and figured something was up, but Spike voluntarily fighting for evil wasn't the answer. He could be ensorcelled or misguided, but not evil -- soul or not. She needed to talk to him. The scars Inuyasha had left on her back still ached every morning when she woke as a firm reminder of just how nasty this particular Big Bad was. He'd damn near disemboweled her from the behind.

"About two and a half years," Giles admitted. "Some of the girls saw him when they retrieved Dana from Wolfram and Hart."

"Wolfram and Hart." Buffy said, flatly. "He was being held by Wolfram and Hart and nobody thought to like tell me?"

Giles sighed and fussed with his glasses, cleaning them on his shirt. "Actually, he was working for Angel. _Don't _ask me how that came about, I don't have a clue. But they were sighted together several times. It appeared to be voluntary on Spike's part. Which is part of the reason why we didn't tell you, Buffy. Spike's back but we didn't know that he still had his soul."

"That's ... weird, the whole Spike and Angel thing," Buffy admitted. Spike and Angel had been mortal enemies for years. "Okay, so Spike is alive and the world has Spikey goodness again and does anyone have any idea for sure about the soul thing now?"

"Umm." Willow said. "He still has a soul. I could sense it yesterday. That's a good thing, right?"

"Yeah. What about magic on him?"

"Other than the usual? Nothing obvious." Willow had gotten very good at detecting magic in the last few years. Her abilities continued to mature and develop -- which was both a scary thing and a reassuring thing. She was much more responsible with her powers now, but Buffy hadn't entirely forgotten that her best friend was the metaphysical equivalent of a billion gigaton nuclear bomb.

"So Spike was saying something about a letter before he went all karate kid on me ...?" Buffy prompted. She hadn't missed the fact that, while Spike had gotten in some good blows, none of them had been worse than what they'd landed on each other in training, and he'd never gone all grr-arrgh on her. He'd been grinning and enjoying the fight, the jerk. Now she turned her glare entirely on Giles, because he was her mail drop when she was globe trotting on Slayer duties.

He had the good grace to blanch.

"Giles, _don't _tell me he _did _send a letter?" Buffy was so not happy about the fact she'd never received said letter.

"Buffy, please understand, we only want what's best for you ..." Giles had his glasses off now and he was wiping them furiously on his shirt.

She narrowed her eyes. "Giles? Give."

He sighed, fished in his pocket, and handed her an opened letter. She wasn't surprised he had it on him; he had to have known how she'd react to finding out her friends had been holding out on her. She turned her attention to the envelope which had a return address to, "William T. Bloody," and a post office box in LA.

"You read it. Giles, that's like so rude!"

He fixed her with an unwavering stare. "If he was warning us of trouble, I _did _want to know and then you would have been told, Buffy."

"Mph." She stuck the letter in her own pocket. She'd read it later. "Do you know what Spike must be thinking? He sends me a letter and I don't even respond with a postcard 'Hi, the weather's lovely in Paris and I'm so glad you survived saving the world?' Giles, he gave his _life _for me. Or at least, I thought he did, 'cause flame-y Spike. He ..."

Giles said, sharply, "That's enough, Buffy. We're well aware of what he's done. Trust me, this was discussed. You do not love him, yet you would have gone to him out of a sense of duty. We're sick of seeing you in miserable relationships."

"Yeah, look at what happened with Rebound Boy." That was Faith, who had never liked The Immortal. Or Spike, for that matter.

"And," Giles said, smoothly, "You have responsibilities now, and duties, beyond anything you've had in the past as the leader of all of us. You don't have time for Spike -- but we knew what your reaction would be if you knew he was alive. We hoped by the time you found out that you would have someone else, someone better for you."

"Someone not all fangy," Xander put in. She shot him a glare, but didn't actually mention his track record with dating nonhumans. Losing Anya had _hurt _too much. As mad as she was with him, she couldn't bring herself to be that cruel.

"Listen to you, oh Prince Charming of Bugs," Willow said, irritably.

_Okay, maybe he did have that coming, _Buffy said, and made a mental note that Willow was actually semi-defending her here.

"Hey! This isn't me! This is about Buffy's bad choices in boyfriends!" Xander snapped back.

"Two things you guys need to realize here," Buffy said, anger flashing to the surface. "One, Spike was the _only _person who stood by me in the end. Because you didn't."

A general group wince greeted that statement. She was right, and they knew it. Even Dawn had turned on her -- but Spike had been loyal through everything. He'd inspired her, in the end -- without Spike, would she have ever had the courage to stand up again after they'd kicked her down, and then lead them into Hell itself?

"Not only that, he sought me out and inspired me to keep fighting after you guys beat me down. Do not tell me he's bad for my duties." Buffy flipped her hair back over her shoulder. "And two? I _do_ love the idiot."

"Buffy, be that as it may, it doesn't change the fact that Spike's apparently working with the dog demon, and so is a Slayer," Giles said.

"The Slayer's a witch, too," Willow said, unexpectedly. "That's the word on the street, anyway. I've been asking around about her. The demons are scared of her -- apparently, she's pretty lethal with a bow and arrow. Uses magic. "

"Have we seen a Slayer who's a witch before?" Buffy blinked, intrigued -- and worried.

"Only Dana." Willow said, with a long-suffering note in her voice that indicated her opinion of that particular Slayer's talents. But Buffy figured she was probably not a good example, given that she was bug fuck nuts. Buffy had no clue what went on in that dark-haired head, save that it was delightfully violent when channeled towards bad guys and rather impressively scary when aimed at anyone else. The problem with Dana was that she didn't always _know _who was the bad guy when she was having a vision. Two and a half years of the best therapy money could buy had produced a girl who could, at least answer questions coherently about half the time and only tried to kill her handlers occasionally.

_Hmm. Maybe we ought to sic Dana on dog-boy. The results would be interesting, to say the least. Berserker Vs. Lunatic. We could sell tickets as a Watcher's Council fundraiser. _

Andrew put in, with a grin that said he was proud of his information network, "Her name's Kagome Higurashi -- she's a student at CalUni. A history major. On an athletic scholarship. She gets good grades. Works mornings in the university library. I've got an address for her apartment. She's from Japan; her parents own a shrine that has a minor portal on the grounds -- the Bone Eater's Well. It appears to have some time travel aspects; we're still trying to find out more information."

Even though she was still pissed at the lot of them, Buffy did feel that work deserved acknowledgement. "Good job, Andrew."

"I live to serve you, milady."

She gave him a _look_. He grinned. Buffy rolled her eyes, an expression shared by pretty much the entire rest of the Scoobies. Joint eye-rollage. It was almost freaky when she realized they'd _all _done it.

"How'd you figure that much out?" Willow asked.

"Got a name from a demon. Then I did some detective work worthy of James Bond ..." He squirmed under Buffy's sharp look. "And I found her job resume on an employment Web site. Well, except for the portal bit. Got that from the Japanese branch of the Watcher's Council. Their secretary's cool, by the way. She likes Transformers."

"Ooh, Andrew's got a giiirl frend." Xander purred out, waggling his eyebrows.

"Shut up. Just shut up." Andrew glared at Xander. "Not cool. Besides, you _know _the ladies like me. Unlike you. Have you _ever _had a girlfriend who was human?"

"Yeah, Xander. Have you?" Buffy asked, sweetly.

He flipped both of them off, one hand in each direction.

"Xander had Transformers Under-roos when he was five," Willow said, brightly. "I remember."

"Willllow!" Xander protested. "Enough with the when-he-was-five stories, okay?"

A firm knock on the door made everyone jump and fall quiet. "Were we expecting anyone?" Willow asked, a worried note in her voice. The two young Slayers assigned to LA had been by earlier; they were off patrolling now. The Scoobies were here solely for dog-demon hunting. Something that was a lot less urgent now that Willow had hit him with her mojo.

"Nope." Buffy couldn't think of anyone who would be calling on them at this late hour. She scooped a stake up off the bed and padded to the hotel room door. After peering through it she grinned and flung it open. _Perfect _timing.

"Spike!"

"'Lo, Slayer." He looked tired, and he had a black eye from their fight earlier, but he also looked _good. _

She stood there, for a moment, taking in the relaxed way he was standing. A lot of the nervous tension she'd always associated with him was gone -- he looked comfortable inside his own skin for the first time since she'd known him. The last few years had been good to him -- he was a very far cry from the miserable creature she'd found hiding in the school's basement, insane and tormented, four years ago.

"You pissed at me?" He asked, somewhat carefully. "If you are, hit me and get it over with, 'cause we got to talk, Slayer."

In response, she simply dove at him, wrapped her arms around him, and buried her face in his chest. She heard his surprised grunt, and knew that wasn't the greeting he was expecting. But she had no intention of ever beating him up again, unless he hit first. "Spike. I thought you were dead."

He went tense, for a moment, then wrapped his arms around her in a hug of greeting. He smelled of cigarette smoke and old leather; the smell was so much _Spike _that it pulled up a world of memories of this man and all they'd shared -- the good and the bad, during their best times and their worst times, as both friends and enemies. "You're not mad at me about earlier?" He said, with a chuffed laugh, low and throaty.

"I didn't know you were alive, Spike. They knew, they didn't tell me." She leaned back, knowing she had tears streaming down her face and _not _caring in the slightest. "And duh, mad big time, but I'll get over it."

"How come _he _gets a 'get out of Jail free card' ..." That was from Xander, behind her. She ignored that. If she acknowledged it, she'd probably _hurt _Xander.

Spike's thumb wiped the tears away from her cheeks. "I should have figured. For what it's worth, I did try a few times to talk to you in person, but it never worked out. Had other things more important."

"Like saving the world?" She rested her head against the cool, firm muscles of his chest. The faded sports-team logo on his black t-shirt was rough against her cheek, and she felt his fingers stroking her back hesitantly. When he inhaled to respond, she heard the breath whoosh into his lungs.

"Pretty much." He said, then lower -- too low for anyone else to hear, "I've missed you, Slayer."

"Yeah." She murmured into his chest. "My friends are idiots."

"... Including this friend." An amused laugh rumbled in her ear. He tightened his hug for a moment, then released her.

She blinked up at him, surprised beyond measure by those three words. He'd just bluntly called himself her friend. Of course, he had been, for a long time, but she'd never expected such a clear statement from him -- he was many things, but never before simply a _friend_. And to include himself in the 'idiot' category, even jokingly ... well, that was new and unusual.

He'd changed a lot, she realized, looking up at him. There was a different light in his eyes -- Except the difference wasn't a bad thing -- her instincts were telling her that Spike was very much whole and healthy and sane, too. Confident in himself, and perhaps happier with himself than he'd been in a long time -- perhaps, ever.

"We need to talk," she said, glancing over her shoulder at the Scoobies.

"Yeah." He agreed. "By the way, I brought someone who wants to talk to you."

For a moment, jealousy flared; she half expected the _someone _to be a girlfriend. And that was apparently the cue for the girl to step forward out of the shadows.

"Kagome," Buffy said, recognizing the other Slayer. She was short -- maybe an inch or two taller than Buffy herself -- and compactly built, with muscles that indicated she'd been working out, and the stance of a warrior. Clear brown eyes regarded Buffy levelly, and with a very large amount of suspicion. She was armed, with a short bow slung over her shoulder, and a quiver full of arrows.

"You got her away from the demon?" Buffy said, making a guess about what had transpired. "What, did he have her ensorcelled or something?"

"Hardly." The girl's Japanese accent was present and accounted for, but her words were easily understandable. "Inuyasha's never been able to keep me from going where I want for very long. He was _not _happy about this meeting, but Shippou's sitting on him."

"Literally." Spike added, with a snicker. "And from what Shippou -- that's the kitsune -- tells me, Kagome's the one who has Inuyasha bespelled, not the other way around."

Buffy glanced from Spike, to the girl, and back. Spike was grinning; Kagome's expression was closed off, reserved, unreadable. "Let's go for a walk."

"Buffy!" Giles started to protest.

She shot him a look over her shoulder that shut him up. "Giles? Right now, I'm so not listening to you."

-------------------------

Perhaps predictably, Buffy led the way to a graveyard. Spike didn't seem surprised by this; he followed Buffy over the graveyard fence without comment. Kagome scrambled over after them, somewhat impressed by the other woman's easy grace. Buffy had a _lot _more training than she did, Kagome realized; it was obvious simply in the way she moved.

The woman was short, extremely fit, _tough_. It was also abundantly clear that she and Spike were _very _good friends. _Lovers maybe, _she thought, watching the body language between them.

"So, Buffy, why don't you start and tell Kagome _exactly _what started this mess with Inuyasha," Spike said, lighting a cigarette. He took a drag off it, then commented, "I've talked to Inuyasha -- he's an angsty little fuck, but he doesn't strike me as exactly the blindly homicidal type. Mad as hell at the moment, but he might actually have a reason I agree with.."

Kagome moved upwind of Spike, trying to be subtle about it. She was used to smokers -- more people smoked in Japan than the US, by far -- but that didn't mean she was fond of the scent, and Spike seemed to prefer a particularly vile brand.

Buffy's eyes flashed with anger. "Spike ... you don't know what happened."

"Inuyasha seems to have some unusual ideas about Slayers. He was convinced you'd kill Kagome the moment you saw her." Spike pointed at Kagome with the cigarette. "She wasn't joking about the kitsune needing to sit on him. He was ready to take you on again to defend her, and he's _human _right now."

Buffy sighed. "I'm not going to kill another Slayer, Spike. You know that."

"I know that. But are you gonna trust another one's judgment? Someone who knows Inuyasha a hell of a lot better than you do? Because Kagome's got a track record on fighting bad guys that just might be longer than yours, Buffy." Spike took a drag on the cigarette. "Have Rupert or Andrew look up Naraku in those databases of theirs -- they might find it illuminating. And you might find out about who Inuyasha is too."

Kagome blinked. Glanced sideways at Spike. _He knows about Naraku? How much does he know? _

Spike took a long pull on the cigarette. "Buffy, I _can _read, you know. Took me about three hours to dig up what I needed to know on Kagome and confirm what she told me was true. Most of it's in Magipedia, online, ya know? And she's quite well recorded in some journals by a lady named Kaede ..."

_Bless Kaede, _Kagome thought, missing the old miko with sudden deep sorrow. Then she was distracted by the look on Buffy's face -- she was profoundly unhappy, her face set in a deep scowl. _Oh, he's spanking her good on this. These two must go way back -- and they truly respect each other. She values his opinion quite a bit and he's not shy about telling her when she's in the wrong. These two see each other as equals. _

"There's some translations out there. Chibi here's been fighting demons since she was a teenager, which would be since _before _she was a Slayer -- only Potential I've run into who was already qualified for the job when she got it. And she was doing most of that fighting at Inuyasha's side. She says he's one of the good guys." Spike made a loose gesture with the cigarette, the very tip a glowing swirl of red light in the dark, in Kagome's direction. "Given what I've read, she's probably right."

"That _good guy _nearly killed me." Buffy snorted, finally finding her voice. "He _did _kill Kennedy, who was with me that day, and every other Slayer he's run across."

"So what did you do to him?" Kagome asked, quietly. Something had gone very wrong here. "What started the fight?"

Buffy shrugged. "Kennedy and I were just out at a bar -- Wil was going to join us later. I heard a fight, went to go take a look, and dog-boy was attacking a couple of human men."

_Wonder what they did to Inuyasha to start it? _Kagome thought, irritably. She said aloud, "Something you need to know about Inuyasha -- he never starts a fight -- but he will definitely finish one if he's provoked. "

Buffy shrugged. "I told him to leave. Instead of being a good little demon, he got in a fight with two Slayers. Like, how stupid is that?"

Kagome swallowed back an incredulous laugh, and said, "I see your head is still attached to your shoulders. Inuyasha was seriously pulling his blows. If he wanted to hurt you, you'd have been dead before your body hit the ground. Also, I would be very surprised if it was Inuyasha who threw the first punch, Buffy."

_Inuyasha couldn't have liked being told to scram by a human girl -- particularly if he thought it was unjustified. He probably took it personally, and lost his temper. Stupid, but that's dog-boy for you. But she hit him first, I can guarantee it._

Buffy tossed her hair back. "Fight went messy in a hurry. Kennedy took out the red-haired demon who was with us. Took her head off. It was yucky and everything."

"That would have been Amelia, who was Inuyasha's _wife _of four hundred and fifty years. I can end this story now -- he probably went youkai on you and tried to kill both of you." _Took her head off. Kami-sama, Inuyasha probably saw that. I would only be surprised if he hadn't killed this Kennedy girl. And I'm amazed Buffy survived. Inuyasha's more than a match for a score of Slayers, never mind two, and that's without his demon surfacing fully!_

"Did kill Kennedy." Buffy sounded sullen now. "Ripped me to shreds. Only reason I survived was that the bartender shot him about six times and he ran off."

_Bullets wouldn't have stopped Inuyasha, but the shock might have done something to slow him down -- even I can't predict what he'll do if he's gone fully demon,_ Kagome thought. She was rapidly deciding she didn't like Buffy much; the descriptions of the terrible tragedy were too flippant. _It's a defense mechanism, but I really don't appreciate it. It's tactless and rude._

"I don't know much about Amelia," Kagome said, quietly, summoning every bit of control she'd had not to tell Buffy what she really thought of her, "But I know Inuyasha. If he loved her for four hundred and fifty years, she was a remarkable woman. Because Inuyasha tends to have very good taste in friends. You've done something terrible, Buffy." Kagome glanced at Spike, whose face was impassive. Spike stubbed the cigarette out on a headstone while she watched.

Buffy said, somewhat mulishly, "She was a demon. I'm a Slayer. It's what I do." The thing was, Buffy didn't sound very sure of that anymore.

Spike asked, "So what happened with the rest of the Slayers?"

"He's been hunting us." Buffy said, anger flaring. "He ambushed most of them and killed them. A small squad of Slayers caught up with _him _once and he killed all four girls."

"I'm not surprised. Were all those girls looking for him?" Kagome wondered what Inuyasha's side of the story was. "You hit, he hits back. Pretty simple. I believe the English expression is 'tit for tat' and as angry as he is about Amelia, he'd kill -- he's never been a killer before, at least not of humans, but _you _made him one. And now you hunt him and he hunts you and it's a vicious cycle."

_Hatfields and McCoys, _Kagome thought, remembering a bit of American history she'd learned in a recent college class. _Kami-sama, it's not going to stop until dog-boy's dead or they are, not unless I can convince Buffy to back off and give me a chance to reason with Inuyasha._

"What else am I supposed to do?" Buffy demanded. "I've got some uber-bad-ass monster killing my girls. Am I _supposed _to just say, 'sorry we killed your little girlfriend, now let's be friends?' -- Spike, Wil damn near went critical on us for a _second _time over Kennedy. This is so not of the good, you know that."

Kagome wasn't sure what that meant, but Spike apparently knew. He grunted, "She didn't, though -- and I'm surprised she hasn't taken Rapunzel out by now."

"Oh, she has." Buffy said, voice soft. "It just took us this long to find him -- he's almost impossible to find with a locator spell."

"She ... has." Kagome said, flatly, remembering hair coming out in her hands when she'd touched Inuyasha's hair. She shuddered at the memory

"What? What did Red do?" Spike said, suddenly alarmed.

Kagome, miko, said a _very _bad word. She was mostly untrained, but she wasn't stupid and she'd feared this since the afternoon. "The spell. It suppresses his demon half ... without that to sustain him ..."

_His human half is seven hundred years old. It won't be instant -- but it'll be ugly._

Buffy's eyes were almost sympathetic. "Wil says he has a week or two at tops before his body shuts down. I'm actually sorry, Kagome -- but he's proven he's a killer twelve times over and part of my job is making the tough decisions." She paused, and added a bit bitterly, "Sometimes, the level of suckage is rather much."

"You haven't the _right!"_ Kagome lunged towards Buffy, intending to hit her as hard as she could.

Spike's hand came down on her shoulder, hard. She hadn't even seen him move. His grip was like iron. "Don't. Buffy would win, Chibi." He then said, in a rather quiet tone of voice to Buffy, "You need somebody to sacrifice themselves to close another Hellmouth? Gimme a call. I'm in the phone book. You want to trust me? You want to do the right thing? You can call me then, too."

"Spike!" Buffy said, sounding outraged when he turned his back and walked away.

He didn't say a word. By the expression on Buffy's face, he didn't have to. _Ouch, _Kagome said, feeling a little sorry for the woman despite everything. _She loves him. Funny, you'd never expect to see a vampire take the moral high ground! _

_------------------------_

Shippou was waiting when she returned home -- she was alone, Spike had muttered something about going to kill something that needed killing and vanished on the way back to her apartment. She trusted his judgment on appropriate monsters to kill was better than that of his girlfriend.

Shippou was himself. She blinked at him, easily recognizing him now that he'd shed his human-appearing form. He was red-haired and fox-tailed, and a good six inches shorter than he'd seemed earlier. He was also dressed in a kimono and hakama, looking quite traditional. If he'd looked like that when she'd seen him the first time there would have been no doubt in her mind who he was.

"LA-con starts tonight," he said, with a wink. "Everybody just thinks I'm a furry and they want to know how my feet work." He pointed down at his fox paws. "I win hall costume awards all the time at cons." Then he sobered, and said, "Seriously, I figured you might want some time alone with Inuyasha -- I'll be back tomorrow evening. Call my cel phone if you need me -- the con's not that important, but there's a couple people who might be there that I'm hoping to run into."

She nodded understanding.

He continued, "Inuyasha's asleep in your bed. He's been sleeping all evening, said he didn't feel well. He didn't even wake up when I checked on him a couple of times."

"Shippou ..." Kagome started to say, to confide in him.

"You will find a way to help him, won't you?" The kitsune's eyes searched her face. "Somehow?"

"I promise you." Shippou had always been perceptive -- sometimes, preternaturally so. She thought he hadn't lost that sensitivity; adulthood had only granted him better manners and more knowledge of people's motivations. _He's a good friend. I wonder why he remembers so clearly and Inuyasha does not? Perhaps it is simply that he is fully youkai and Inuyasha is partly human._

He squeezed her shoulder briefly. "I think I said this before, Kagome, but I have missed you and it's good to have you back with us."

"Thanks." She gave him a hug. "I'll give you a call if anything comes up. Be careful out there, will you?"

He nodded and left, pulling the door shut very quietly after him.

"Kagome," Inuyasha said, after Shippou had left. So he hadn't been sleeping, or he'd just woken. His voice was low, and somehow urgent.

"How are you feeling?" She walked to the bedroom door and pushed it open.

"Been better." The light from the living room was enough to see him clearly by -- his hair was an inky curtain across the pillow, and he was propped up on one elbow. Given this was Inuyasha, who referred to major injuries as "scratches" she translated that 'been better' to 'I feel like hell.' Or, possibly, 'I'm scared to death.' Maybe the latter; his emotions had always been both his strength and his weakness.

"Inuyasha ..." she said, quietly, "There's something you should know."

"I'm dying." His voice was hoarse, thick; not from sickness, but rather raw fear closing his throat up. "My human body can't sustain itself for very long; it's just too old."

He knew. Kami-sama, he _knew_. "When did you realize?"

"Earlier today, when I started shedding." There was silence, for a moment, then in an even softer voice he said, "Kagome, I ... I don't want to be alone. You will stay with me? Until -- until the end?"

"Of course! But I'm going to find a way to bring your demon powers back." She sat down on the edge of the bed and said calmly, "I'm not going to let you die."

"Keh. Might be best if I do." He slumped back on the mattress, putting his face into the shadows of the light from the doorway

She reached out to feel his forehead -- he was cool, and her miko powers assured her that he wasn't in any great distress. She suspected he had a few good days left before vital organs started to completely shut down. _It'll eventually be a tossup if he dies of kidney and liver failure or infection. _

She needed to check his wound. His hair was falling out because his cells weren't replicating like they should. That likely meant his immune system was useless too -- he'd be wide open to nasty germs. _If he gets something growing that's antiobiotic resistant, he could be gone in hours._ She needed to get him on antiobiotics -- fortunately, she had a stash of several types from runs down to Mexico. Sometimes she needed them for herself, after getting cut up and doused in demon guts.

"What's the phase of the moon right now?" she asked, quietly. She knew, approximately -- _it's the last quarter, thank Gods -- _but Inuyasha could tell her exactly. He had a vested interest in knowing.

"It's five days until the new. What are you thinking?" His voice was warm and low in the darkness.

"The spell she cast upon you -- I can see the shape of it. It's drawing strength from your youkai half. The stronger your demon side is, the stronger the spell itself is. So I think it'll be easiest to break on the night of the new moon." She added, after a moment in which he lay there, too quiet. "The witch who cast it is much more powerful than I could ever be. And far better trained,"

"Tell me about it. It's white magic, too. I can _feel _it," he grumbled.

"Yes. Were it dark and evil, I could purify it. How do break a spell as clean and pure as this? It's a spell designed to exorcise a demon, and it's done properly, with the purest of intentions." Kagome said, "The witch who did it believed she was doing the right thing."

He moved, sheets rustling. She realized he'd rolled over onto his side, away from her. His voice was very small. "Maybe I gave her reason to believe it."

"Maybe you did. The first Slayer you killed, Inuyasha, was her lover. It's the second time she's lost a lover to violence, according to Spike." Spike had told Kagome a few other things about Willow -- powerful didn't even begin to describe a woman who could nigh destroy the earth if she chose.

"Crap. I sure know to pick my enemies."

"Yeah." She got up on her knees. "Scoot over, Inuyasha."

"Huh? Kagome ..." His voice held alarm, and she almost snickered.

"Relax, dog-boy. I'm not going to jump your bones. This is _my _bed, though, and I'm not sleeping on the couch. And the couch is short; you don't fit on it very well." She tried to convince him -- and herself -- that was the only reason. She didn't think she was doing a very good job on either count.

"Keh." But he moved over, somewhat to her surprise. She noted he was moving stiffly; the deep cut on his chest was probably sore. Tussling -- literally -- with Shippou earlier certainly hadn't helped.

She slid in under the covers, fully clothed. The blankets were warm from his presence; the pillow smelled of him. For a long moment, they lay in silence. Then she said, "You used to keep watch over me. Sleeping in a tree, or up against a wall. You made me feel so safe."

"Can't do much now." A grumble. "I'm deaf, too, and my nose don't work. I hate it."

"I can take care of myself now."

"Keh." He grumbled something under his breath. It sounded like it had _Amelia _in it.

"What was that?" She asked.

"I said that Amelia thought she could take care of herself too." He paused, and took a ragged breath "Mostly, she could."

"Shh. You don't need to talk about it."

He rolled over, suddenly, and fumbled his arms around her, and pulled her close to his chest. She squeaked in surprise, and he said, "Shh. I'm not jumping you, either. I just want ... I want to hold on to you again. It helps."

"Oh. Uh, sure."

After a moment, he said quietly, "Amelia and I were at a place called 'Footloose' -- it's a bar, plays music, got a dance floor. Amelia liked it. She liked to dance."

She wondered about his sensitive ears and nose in a place like that. And if he danced too -- had Amelia managed to coax him out on occasion? He had the coordination and athleticism to shine on a dance floor, but she had a hard time picturing him actually doing it. _If I were to try to get him to dance, I'd tell him I didn't think he _could_, and then he'd have to prove me wrong. Voila. Dancing Inuyasha. _

She still couldn't picture it. Well, she _could _-- she could see him all amber eyes and long flowing white hair, moving to the music, athletic and gorgeous. If he did it regularly, he'd have a fan club who waited and watched for him to move out, who sighed over him. Admirers. _I just can't imagine him _doing _it. _

He sighed, his breath warm against her cheek. "We were regulars. I should have bought stock in the company that made cotton balls ..."

She giggled. "I was curious how you handled the loud music."

He chuffed a laugh, and his arms tightened around her. "The chance to watch Amelia always made me willing to put up with the crowds. Amelia _loved _people. She was so social -- she had so many friends. She was always the most beautiful when she was surrounded by people -- she always looked the most alive, you know? And people were drawn to her. I know I was ... to this day, I don't know why she fell for me, of all people, because she could have had her pick of anyone. You know what I'm like."

"Yeah. Loyal, brave, devoted, and rather handsome? In addition to being a walking attitude problem."

Once, she would have had to define 'attitude problem' to him. Now, however, he just grunted in apparent agreement, "Heh. Anyway, we were regulars there. The staff knew us -- they knew we weren't human, but Amelia could charm anyone, and they not only tolerated us, but the owner considered us friends. They were good people. I used to clean up, sometimes, help out after closing -- didn't need the money, but they needed the help. A lot of the other regulars were friendly with us too -- we went almost every Friday night. It was a good place to be."

His voice was distant; she knew he was remembering a happy time. It wasn't something she would have imagined him doing, really; he'd always been a bit aloof, in her time. But if his wife enjoyed going out, she could see him following.

There was silence, for a moment, from him. He was very still before continuing. "That particular night there were some new guys making trouble at the bar -- badass types, you know? Footloose had a couple of big sturdy bouncers, but one had called in sick and the other guy was overmatched. The owner had asked if I'd help out earlier if he needed it -- wasn't the first time he'd asked for that."

"Anyway, the guys were drunk and were harassing a woman and they needed to leave." Inuyasha fell silent, for a moment. "I figured it was going to be easy. It was a bit of a fight but nothing major -- Ferdinand, the bouncer, was shoving one guy out the door and I was keeping the other two occupied for him when these two girls took it entirely the wrong way and got in my face."

His voice turned bitter. "Because I wasn't human, they told me to get lost. They assumed I was attacking the men. They told me I didn't belong there. Kagome, I was _welcome _at Footloose. The blond one -- Buffy -- threatened to _kill _me if she ever saw me in Footloose again."

Inuyasha exhaled a ragged breath. "I told her to go fuck off. She grabbed my shirt and punched me in the gut -- at which point, I realized she wasn't entirely human. She hits hard. So I grabbed her. I figured I'd toss her and her friend out too. Didn't know exactly what she was, but she was making trouble ..." His grip tightened on Kagome. She heard him swallow noisily, and his breath caught in his chest for just a moment.

"Anyway, she put me through the bar. Broken glass everywhere and I liked to pass out from the stink of booze. Pissed me _off. _I was going to take her down, at that point; went after her seriously. Unfortunately, she had a wooden stake in her hand and I didn't realize it and she got me in the gut." That wouldn't have been a stopping blow for Inuyasha, but it would have hurt and it would have slowed him down.

"Amelia attacked Buffy at that point -- she was a pretty good fighter in her own right, and her youkai was coming out to play because I was hurt." He exhaled raggedly. "Amelia was tying to take Buffy down and the other Slayer got her from behind with a bowie knife. Took ... took ..."

_Took her head off. And Inuyasha saw it. _

"I know. I heard." He didn't need to tell her anymore. She didn't _want _to hear.

"There was so, so much blood. Everywhere. And the body ... the body was twitching. Her eyes were _looking _at me. She blinked a couple of times, rolled her eyes towards me. I think ... I think she had time to _see _me, before ..." He shuddered violently and clutched Kagome to him with desperate strength. "I don't remember much of what happened after that. I came back to myself in an alley hours later -- I'd been shot, but I don't even remember it."

"The bartender shot you." Kagome said, quietly.

"I haven't been back. I don't even know what happened to her body. The bartender shot me?"

"That's what Buffy said."

He growled in response to the woman's name, and the reminder of where Kagome had been that evening. "He was a friend. Fuck, I must have scared him so badly ... I killed a girl in front of him ..." Inuyasha shivered violently. "I miss Amelia so much. I see that ... I see her eyes looking at me ... I see the blood. Every night, I dream of that. I can't lose the image. It'll be with me to the day I die."

Suddenly he lunged to his feet and ran into the bathroom. She wasn't surprised to hear him vomit; she sat up, and snapped on the bedside light. The sheets were covered in fine black hairs. Shit.

She got up, padded into the kitchen, and started a pot of tea. It looked like it was going to be another long night. _I hate Buffy, for this. Her world's so simple -- see monster, kill monster. But it's never that simple. I bet they laughed and congratulated themselves after the they murdered her. Thought they'd done a great thing. _

After several minutes, Inuyasha emerged, looking pale and drawn. He accepted the tea she offered him without comment. He blew on it, sipped it, and then flopped on the couch. Then, finally, he said, "My nose says Slayers have a bit of demon in them. Did you know that? It comes with their power."

Kagome, miko, _blinked_ at that. "Really?" A slow smile spread across her face. "I'll remember that the next time I get a chance to kick Buffy's ass."

Inuyasha downed his tea, suddenly, and stood back up. "Kagome, let's go _out_. I'm not sure I've got all that much time left -- let's just go do something fun."

She glanced at the clock. It was eleven. For LA, that wasn't all that late. And -- do something fun with Inuyasha. It was obviously an impulsive move on his part; his eyes were wary, scared, and somehow very lonely.

"Sure, let's go. Meal and a movie?"

He nodded agreement. It was something totally normal, like she'd do with any guy -- perhaps he, too, was desiring the normalcy. _I know so little about him. What's normal for Inuyasha anymore? _


	6. Chapter 6

Slayer of Nightmares

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Chapter 6

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Author's notes: There's some fairly tame citrus in this chapter. (Smut, for the non-anime fans. LOL.)

-------------------

Willow woke sometime around twelve-oh-dark at night, after turning in early. The hotel room should have been pitch black, but there was a blue glow coming from Buffy's bed. She lifted her head, heart pounding, expecting to see something supernatural in the room. It would be far from the first time.

_Tap ... tap ... tappity-tap-tap._

Buffy sat there, cross-legged on the bed, a laptop computer open before her. She was typing with two fingers, hunt-and-peck style.

"Buffy?" Willow said, sleepily.

"G'back to bed, Wil," Buffy said.

"Whatcha doin'?"

"Research on something."

Willow contemplated that for a moment, lifted her head, and regarded Buffy with great suspicion. "Okay, who are you and what did you do with Buffy Summers?"

Buffy's brief answering grin was brilliant white in the glare from the laptop screen.

"Buffy doing research. In the middle of night. The world is ending, isn't it?" Willow rolled over onto her stomach and squinted at the clock radio. It said '11:53'. "Please tell me the world isn't ending. I don't have any room in my schedule for an apocalypse right now. It needs to wait until September. I might be able to fit it in then."

"Go back to bed, Wil."

"You know I'd look up whatever you needed." Willow was wide awake now, because this was weird and unusual behavior from Buffy. Not that Buffy wasn't smart enough to do her own research -- witness SAT scores higher than Willow's own -- but she was generally not _interested_. Buffy was a leader and a warrior woman; she was not a research geek. "That's sort've my job."

"Wouldn't ask you to do this one," Buffy said, quietly.

"It's about Inuyasha," Willow guessed -- accurately, by the frowny look Buffy gave her. "What happened with you and Spike, anyway?"

Buffy sighed. "Not so much the happy reunion."

"Is he an item with that other Slayer?"

"Who, Kagome? No. Kagome has the hots for Inuyasha." Buffy answered that casually, almost absently.

"Thereby proving that you are not the only Slayer in existence to fall in love with an evil demon," Willow said, then batted aside the pillow that Buffy shot in her direction.

"It's not really funny, Wil. I've been doing some reading on Inuyasha. We looked up inu-youkai in general, remember? But we never thought to see if he had a history of his own. And he does. A significant one. As a good guy. Both with Kagome, and later, over the last few centuries -- he's taken out a few significant big bads. He's stopped a few apocalypses, even, and was involved in closing a Hellmouth in Mongolia in the 1800's. Inuyasha's supposed to be very much the white hat type dude ..." Buffy trailed off. "The demon woman we killed? Was his _wife_. They've been fighting the good fight for centuries."

"Huh?" Willow sat up. Buffy was right; they'd just researched his species, not anything specific about him. He'd sounded reasonably easy to kill -- at least, compared to some of the big bads they'd taken down. He was tough, but certainly not invincible, particularly against white magic. She gave him ten days, tops, before he was dead of the spell she'd hit him with. To find out he wasn't one of the big bads ...

"Here. Read." Buffy stood up, unhooked the laptop from its power cord, and passed it to Willow. "I'm going to go patrol. Need to go dust a few vampires or something."

----------------------------------

"Man, that was a good movie!" Kagome was still laughing when they emerged out into the parking lot, hours after leaving her apartment. They'd watched a funny but forgettable comedy -- to her delight, Inuyasha had really _laughed_, for the first time since she'd found him; softly, but he had. Even in the past, he'd laughed only rarely.

Some of the things he'd been amused by surprised her. The comedy had featured quite a few American cultural in-jokes and she'd only understood about half of what had made the rest of the audience howl with appreciation. She remembered the books, DVDs, and music that filled Inuyasha's house, and smiled faintly. _Five centuries. The fact that he gets popular culture more than I do now -- it drives all the time he's lived in the world home. _

He smiled at her, though the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. They remained troubled -- as well they should, she thought, humor fading. His laughter earlier had made her forget, for a moment, what he faced if they couldn't beat the spell. "Kagome?"

"Yes?"

He murmured, "Thank you. For everything. Past and present."

She gave him a startled sideways look. 'Thank yous' from Inuyasha were rare, but heartfelt when he issued them without prompting.

"You've been hurting," she said, quietly, understanding that he was feeling bad for the way he'd treated her in the beginning.

"I miss her," Inuyasha said, sadly. He tucked hands into his pockets and walked beside her towards her car. "I'll always miss her."

Impulsively, she put an arm around his thin shoulders and hugged him against her as they walked. He didn't resist, somewhat to her surprise. She said softly, "You'll be okay eventually. I'm here with you."

"I'm starting to realize that." He leaned back, away from her, stopping when they reached her car. Brown eyes studied her, illuminated by a streetlight. A smile played about his lips -- sad, wistful, but honest. "I was so angry, Kagome. So really angry. I was all alone -- nobody to talk to, nobody to tell ... anything to. I ... it helps, you know. To talk to you."

He brushed her hair back from her face, then cupped the side of her face in the palm of his hand. "Kagome, I think I remember you made me feel this way before, too. And I haven't always treated you the way you deserved."

"You shouldn't feel guilty, Inuyasha. Both of us made mistakes."

He met her eyes, smile fading. "I feel guilty for past and the now. The right now."

There was a hunger in his eyes -- a desperate, wild, lonely hunger. Once upon a time, when they'd only known each other a few days -- maybe weeks, at most -- he'd moved to kiss her. And she'd panicked and fallen over backwards and it had been an embarrassing mess. She'd been what, fifteen? His eyes hadn't looked like _this, _then. It was as if he was baring his soul to her.

"Inuyasha ..." she said, stepping towards him. There was a huge difference between a naive fifteen and a confident twenty, she thought, remembering her reaction years before ...

Kagome reached for him and he eagerly stepped into the circle of her arms, his own hands wrapping around her to crush her to him. The kiss that followed made her tingle all the way to her toes. She'd dreamed of embracing him like this since almost the first day she'd met him ... but the reality was so much more real than anything her imagination could provide.

Somehow, she found herself up on the trunk of her car, knees on either side of his hips, and arms around his neck. She was glad the car was there; she wasn't sure her legs could have supported her weight. And after, she would never be able to remember how she moved from standing and kissing him to sitting on the trunk.

After a moment, he leaned back a little, and rested his forehead against hers, and just held her. "Kagome ... if you don't break the spell on me, well, you know what's gonna happen. If you don't want to ... go any farther, I'd understand." His breath ruffled her hair, and when she transferred her hands from his shoulders to his chest she could feel his heart beating under her hands. It was racing; she wasn't sure if that was emotion or, disturbingly, illness.

"Inuyasha, if I fail, I don't want to spend the rest of my life wondering what could have been between us." She answered him quietly, reminded of his mortality by the rapid pulse under her fingers. She would give everything she had to save his life -- but if everything she had wasn't enough, and if all they had was a few days, so be it. She was willing to take that chance, if he was.

_Though the way he talks about Amelia ... does he even really love me? Is it even possible? _

She didn't know. She hadn't known with Kikyo, either. There was an uncomfortable sense of familiarity in that uncertainty. _Maybe I'll never be sure. But if I can bring him some small measure of peace ... I'll do what I can. And not regret it. Even if this turns out to be loneliness and not love on his part, I'll not regret it. Because maybe I can ease his loneliness for awhile, until he's stronger. And I love him._

"I'm going to beat this spell. I have to," she whispered.

"Keh. That you do. Or I'll come back as a spirit to bitch at you later." Light words, joking, to hide his very real fear that she could _not _break the other witch's curse. He slid his hands up to cradle the back of her head and pulled her close for another kiss. She realized with deep relief, _He wants to live. Did I change that in him? Did I give him the reason he needed?_

"Sorry to interrupt," a voice said, not sounding very sorry at all, "But I need to talk to you two."

Inuyasha ripped free of her grasp with a snarl -- it was amazing how, even human, he could growl like that. There was pure and complete menace in the sound he make. His lips rose over blunt human teeth and he crouched, seconds from attacking. She hopped off the trunk of the car, landing lightly, her own startlement quickly turning to alarm.

Buffy stood, arms folded, regarding them with evident amusement. "I've been here about five minutes. Like, I understand the smoochies and all with the very hot demon guy, but Kagome you really ought to get a room before you get distracted next time. It's dangerous out here."

Inuyasha sprang, blunt human fingers curved so that he would have been lethally dangerous if he'd had claws. Buffy dropped into a deadly crouch of her own, and Kagome realized that Inuyasha could die from the first blow that Buffy threw ... he was _human _and Buffy could hit him _that _hard.

"Osuwari!" she shouted, in fear of what would happen. _Buffy'd slay him and then make some witty little comment, and laugh, and think she'd done something grand and wonderful, and never even understand who she'd just murdered.._

He did a face plant at Buffy's feet -- unfortunately, she was lunging towards him at the same time. She tripped over him, and landed on top of him with a grunt of surprise. Kagome leaped forward, grabbed Buffy by the arm, yanked her off Inuyasha, and crouched between her and the hanyou. "Touch him and I _will _kill you, woman."

"Sweet trick." Buffy nodded at Inuyasha, who was making strange squeaking noises. Since he wasn't swearing, Kagome thought she might have knocked the wind out of him. "I need one of those necklaces for Spike."

"You'd kill Inuyasha in a fight right now," Kagome said, anger touching her voice. _And Spike doesn't need a rosary. Is she nuts?_ Spike had impressed her quite a bit with his ability to _think. _She met Buffy's gaze head-on with a grin of challenge. "However, in a fight between the two of us, I think I've got a decent chance. Why don't you take me on instead?"

Inuyasha made a choking, whooping noise as he finally sucked a full breath of air into his lungs. "Kagome, no!" Inuyasha sounded panicked. She heard him trying to stand up. _Yeah, he's in 'save the girl' mode! _She would need to cure him of that eventually; she wasn't the breakable little girl she had been.

"Osuwari!" She repeated, before he got high enough that he'd be hurt by another face plant. "And stay down!"

"Kagome, she'll kill you!" Inuyasha fought the rosary -- she could hear him panting and thrashing behind her. "Kagome, no! I couldn't bear to lose you too! No! I'd be alone!"

"Shush," Kagome said, not looking back now. "And _osuwari_," she repeated, to ensure he'd stay put for the next several minutes. The last thing she needed was a human (and ailing) Inuyasha complicating matters with Buffy. She had a plan -- it was wild and reckless but it just might work

"Kagome!" He wailed.

Buffy said, eyebrows raising, "That's ... handy. Does he shake hands and roll over on command too?"

Kagome ignored Inuyasha ferocious sputtering in response to Buffy's words. She fixed Buffy with a deadly glare. "I've had just about enough of your little comments. I don't think that's very funny."

"Anybody ever tell you that your sense of humor is seriously lacking?" Buffy sounded offended that Kagome was irritated by her irreverent attitude.

_It's not a joking matter, what she did to Inuyasha's wife. I can't believe she'd make light of this fight. People have _diedKagome reached into her pocket and thumbed the trunk release on her key fob. The trunk popped open. Almost absently, she repeated, "Osuwari!" -- Inuyasha had been about to get up to his hands and knees. She winced, hoping she wasn't doing him any permanent damage. But the rosary seemed to base how hard it 'sat' him on how angry she was -- and she wasn't mad at him at all, she just didn't want him fighting the Slayer.

"Fucking A, Kagome, let me up! Kagome! I swear to God, if you die, I'm going to follow up to the gates of Hell if necessary and kick your ass!"

"You wouldn't happen to be able to mute dog-boy too, would you?" Buffy frowned at Inuyasha.

"What, are your ears offended by a little well-earned profanity?" Kagome was surprised when the other Slayer didn't stop her from opening the trunk of her car. Buffy's attention was still on the hanyou -- which, Kagome supposed, wasn't entirely irrational. Buffy had no way of knowing how long Inuyasha would have to stay down, and it was Inuyasha who was being overtly threatening.

"Look, we need to talk again." Buffy sighed, finally looking away from the spectacle of the dark-haired man flatted on his chest on the asphalt of the parking lot. "Kagome ... Inuyasha ..." she nodded at the hanyou, who had been reduced to sputtering in Japanese at her. Kagome was rather glad Buffy didn't seem to understand any Japanese. "We need to talk about a few things."

"Yeah, we do." Kagome reached down, wrapped her hand around the quiver of arrows in her trunk, and charged the whole bundle. Swiftly, in one fluid movement, she pulled them out, concentrated for a second, turned around and threw the whole dozen arrows with intent at Buffy, like a fistful of darts.

Buffy flung a hand up. Some of the arrows collided with her fingers and the rest bounced off her shirt. One or two left scratches on her arm. Purifying light flared, and Buffy gasped and stumbled backwards. _Gotcha! _Kagome thought, with supreme satisfaction.

"What -- what was that?" Buffy said, in shock. She stood frozen.

It was Inuyasha who spoke next -- he propped himself up on his elbows as the rosary started to release him and said, with a note of keen appreciation, "Kagome, that was pure genius. Way to end the fight before it started!"

"I don't ... I don't understand." Clearly, Buffy sensed something had been done to her. She shook her head, puzzled. "This is so of the weird .. what did you _do _to me?"

"Slayer powers are demonic in origin," Inuyasha slowly clambered to his feet. He was moving stiffly, obviously bruised and hurting. Kagome felt a brief stab of guilt at that -- but Buffy would have _killed _him in a fight. "She just purified you. You're just an ordinary human, now, woman."

"You ... that's impossible." Buffy stalked towards Kagome, and grabbed her shirt, obviously intending to hold her up by her collar. She strained, and couldn't lift Kagome at all ... Kagome easily broke Buffy's grip with a contemptuous swat of her hands, then drove her fist into Buffy's stomach.

With a painful -- and rather startled-sounding -- _woof _of exhaled air, Buffy doubled over. Kagome balled her fists up, intending to hit the other woman on the head and finish the fight before it started, but suddenly Inuyasha was there, grabbing her wrists with his hands.

He shook his head, dark hair swishing back and forth. "Don't."

Kagome could have pulled free of his grasp, but his tone of voice arrested her still. It was almost pleading.

Buffy ducked away from them. She tossed her hair back over her shoulder and regarded Inuyasha with wide eyes. Sounding almost awed, she said, "Why did you _stop _her?" Then her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Do you want to fight me yourself? 'Cause I'm all for that, Rover."

Inuyasha gave her a disgusted look, then said in a somewhat shaky voice to Kagome, "Miko, you kill her, it's _murder_. I can't ... I can't have you ... not for me. Do you understand? I don't want ... don't want you to be a murderer. Not like I am."

He averted his face from both of them, trembling. Kagome could see terrible guilt and grief written on his face, and in the lines of his thin frame.

"I wasn't going to kill her," Kagome said, indignantly. "Beat the shit out of her, maybe."

Inuyasha gave her a sideways look. "Even so. You're good, Kagome -- that's always been your greatest strength, the goodness in your heart. You hurt her, you lose something of that. Do you understand? I won't have you compromise that for me. Not ever." He exhaled a long, shuddering breath. "Nothing is ever going to bring Amelia back; I won't have you making yourself dirty for me."

Buffy had been very quiet, watching them. Kagome was a little surprised the other woman hadn't bolted. She had guts that extended beyond those inspired by Slayer Super-Powers, apparently. Finally, Buffy spoke, "The thing is, I wasn't coming to fight with you two."

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed, suspiciously. He growled.

Buffy tossed her hair back again, and met his gaze. "Way to make a girl feel guilty n' all, you know?"

"Get to the point," Kagome snapped. Buffy was -- well, not helpless, but at least far less of a threat -- than she had been earlier, but that didn't mean Kagome was anywhere near willing to make friends.

"I thought you were a monster, Inuyasha." Buffy said, voice quiet -- she sounded very shaken. She said in a quieter tone, "Now I see we both were."

"Inuyasha's never been a monster!" Kagome's defense of him was instinctive, almost a spinal-level reflex. She took a step towards Buffy, and Inuyasha grabbed her arm again.

"Kagome, let's go." Inuyasha's tone was strained -- when she glanced at him, she could tell he was pale even under the harsh glow of the streetlight. "Buffy, you're right. We've both acted like monsters. I've had enough of this fight between us. Have you?"

Buffy sounded almost like a little girl when she said, "Kagome -- i-is what you did to me -- is it, like, permanent?"

Kagome said, with a grin that could only be described as _evil, _"Guess you'll find out."

"Wait!"

Inuyasha was already walking away, towards the passenger side of the car. Kagome turned to follow him, leaving Buffy alone under the light.

----------------------

Kagome felt Inuyasha's gaze on her for half a block before she said, "What?"

"I don't remember you being nearly this aggressive," Inuyasha said, with an low laugh. "But I like it."

"You don't remember me at all," she scoffed, glancing over at him. Though he was right, and she knew it, because three years of being a Slayer on her own, without guidance or friends to back her up, had taught her to fight and win. She wasn't the little girl she'd been when he'd known her past. She'd had nobody to run to her rescue; no close friends who knew her secrets. It hadn't been easy at first -- but she'd learned she could fight by herself and win.

"Keh. I'm remembering a few things." He gave her a crooked, amused smile. "So _will _Buffy's powers come back?"

"Oh, eventually," Kagome giggled suddenly. "I didn't do any permanent damage to her. Slayer abilities seem to come from a higher power even I couldn't touch -- I'll have to ask Spike how much he knows; I can sense a few things, but I think there's a story there."

"Letting her wonder was _mean_," Inuyasha said, with a smirk that said he approved of her decision to leave the other Slayer hanging.

"She pisses me off. She's always joking about stuff that shouldn't be joked about." Kagome shook her head, slowly. "She just rubs me the wrong way. But -- thank you, for stopping me. I think you may have made Buffy think about a few things."

"I'm not sure that Buffy thinks all that much about anything," he said, dourly. "She just reacts."

"Reminds me of someone else I know who isn't always the world's greatest brain," She said, then held her breath, wondering if she'd just offended him greatly. Stupid comment, she hadn't been _thinking_. much herself before making it!

But Inuyasha simply said, "Keh. You're right."

_And that's half the problem here. Both of them have a tendency to hit first, without thinking things through. Diplomacy certainly isn't Inuyasha's strongest skill! And I don't think Buffy's much better._

"Sorry about sitting you," she added, merging with traffic on the freeway. "I didn't have time to explain and I was worried ..."

"It's okay," he responded, after a moment. To her surprise, he gave her another wry grin. "I promise I won't kill you in your sleep over it. And you were right to stop me -- you had a plan, I just wanted to tear her limb from limb when I saw her."

"Inuyasha? What you said about me having a good heart?" She reached out, caught his hand in her fingers, and squeezed. "It goes for you, too. I couldn't bear to see you kill someone."

"I ..." He exhaled with a harsh, shuddering sound. "I have, though. Not demons. People."

"Yeah. I know." She squeezed his fingers. She didn't really want to think about that. It seemed unreal that he could do anything like that -- part of her consciously knew just how dangerous he was when his demon half took over, and she knew that the single easiest way to really stir him to a rage was to hurt someone he loved. But picturing Inuyasha killing a human was even harder than picturing him dancing.

He didn't say anything for the rest of the ride back to her apartment -- he just sat there in silence, staring out the window of the car. He showed every sign of going into a major brooding fit -- he was still quiet when he followed her up to her door.

She pushed the door shut after him, locked it, set her purse down on the couch, then turned towards him. He was staring out the living room window. Yup, _clinical diagnosis of brooding, _she thought, _damn Buffy._

Kagome walked up beside him, put a hand on his shoulder, and said, "Hey. Inuyasha. Look at me."

He regarded her uneasily, brown eyes troubled. "Kagome ... I'm sorry, for earlier."

"For what?" She was surprised by the apology. Inuyasha said 'sorry' even less than he said 'thank you' -- and it was always sincere and heartfelt when he did.

Now he looked down, at his feet. "For coming on to you. It was ... it wasn't right, Kagome. I'm sorry. It's not fair to you. I know how you feel about me. And I'm all muddled up in my head and ..."

"Okay, then I apologize in advance for this too." She reached up, put her hands round his neck, and kissed him. He stiffened, not responding at first, and she almost let him go, disappointed and embarrassed -- then with desperate intensity he opened his mouth and returned it. His hands dropped to rest on her hips, pulling her closer.

He felt so good. Under her hands, he was slender yet muscled; the incredible power of the hanyou translated into one very fit human man. He didn't apologize again, either and he didn't hesitate anymore. He was holding her tight against him, and she could feel a hot heat pressing through his jeans against the pit of her stomach.

When he pulled back a few inches, her knees were weak and she was shaking with need. He murmured, "Bedroom?"

"Or right here." She said, with a low laugh. She wasn't sure she could walk after that kiss.

"Keh. Bedroom. More comfortable." He chuckled, breath hot against her cheek, "I'd carry you -- but that'll have to wait until I'm me again."

_Did he just say he'd stick around after ...? _

He crushed his mouth back down on hers, and all conscious thought faded. Only dimly was she aware of him guiding her through the apartment and towards the bed. Any coherent thoughts she had remaining were focused simply on _him._

Much, much later, she lay curled against his chest, spent and utterly relaxed. He ran his hand through her hair and said quietly, "You should have told me."

"Told you what?" She said, puzzled.

"You know. That you'd never ..."

"Idiot," she growled, "What, you think I'm _easy?_" She briefly considered the circumstances in which she'd posed that question, and Inuyasha's notorious lack of tact, and said hastily, but with some amusement, "_Don't _answer that. If I have to sit you, it might break the bed."

"I just thought ... you're twenty, Kagome. Most girls in this time ..." He trailed off, then said, "You're right. I won't answer that."

"That's a good boy," she said, grinning into his shoulder.

She felt his shoulders shake and realized he was suppressing a chuckle. He lifted his head up, kissed her cheek, then reached a hand out, grabbed the blanket, and flipped it over both of them. His hands continued to stroke her hair and her back until she drifted down into a dreamless sleep, safe and secure in his arms.

-----------------------


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

----------------

Inuyasha, whimpering, woke her a few hours before dawn.

Kagome lifted her head from her pillow. During the night they'd moved apart so they were no longer touching; now, he was making soft noises and shaking. Literally shaking -- she could feel the blankets quivering. He was making tiny noises, and something just felt _wrong_.

At first, she thought it was a nightmare. She propped herself up on one elbow and reached a hand out to shake him awake. The shoulder she touched was shivering, yet burning hot. And he was awake, because he murmured her name, and then added, "Keh. I f-f-feel like shit."

He was boiling with fever; she could feel the heat rolling off his thin body in waves.

"Fuck," she said, "You're sick, Inuyasha."

"No, you think?" He snarked at her, sounding angry t-- perhaps at what had been done to him, perhaps that his body dared to betray him in this way.

"Is it your wound?" She asked, quietly.

She felt him patting at it, arm moving under the covers. It wasn't really that bad of a cut, though it was healing slowly, if at all. He coughed, a dry and nasty noise. "Don't think so. Doesn't hurt much, and it isn't hot."

She sighed, and untangled herself from the covers. The cough was alarming to her ears and probably the real reason for his fever. She knew Inuyasha's tolerance for discomfort was extremely high; he could have been feeling bad earlier and not even acknowledged it. He'd been rather distracted, anyway ... "You might just have the flu or something." Unfortunately influenza, or even the common cold, could be deadly in and of itself, if his immune system was failing. She sighed, and said, "Do you have a legal identity so we can take you to a doctor in the morning?"

"G-got a driver's license and a social security number and a credit history 'n all that, if that's what you mean. It's current. The license shows me as me, even."

Inuyasha, driving, was a scary thought. She hadn't asked him if he had a car. She also didn't want to know how the social security number and license had been accomplished. On the other hand, this was California ... it probably took more than a guy with dog ears and funny eyes to worry a DMV clerk.

"Hate driving. Running is faster. But I can, if I have to. Amelia made me learn, in case I needed to go somewhere the night I'm human -- and the license comes in handy if I've gotta buy something with plastic 'n they want ID," he said, from underneath the covers. He was burrowing under them, obviously freezing from chills. "Kagome, I'm _sick_."

"Yeah." She stood up and padded into the bathroom, where she retrieved a bottle of antibiotics that she'd purchased in Mexico, plus four ibuprofen and a glass of water. If he had flu -- and she wasn't sure on that -- the antibiotics wouldn't help with the virus itself, but would at least help to stave off a secondary infection.

He protested when she pulled the covers back. "Cold!"

"I know. Sit up and take these. They'll help, I hope."

"Pills." He spoke with flat skepticism.

"Yes, pills. Take them."

He swallowed them, then downed the entire glass of water. Shivering more violently now, he yanked the covers back over his head and curled up into a tight, miserable ball.

"Do you want some tea?" She asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Could you -- could you hold me?" He said in a small, tentative voice.

Ah, yes, she remembered very well that Inuyasha, when he was _really _and truly sick, wanted to be held and comforted -- she'd seen it before from him. On the other hand, Inuyasha on the mend was a holy terror. She crawled under the blankets with him, wrapped her arms around his shivering body, and said quietly, "You'll be okay, Inuyasha. Really, you will."

"Kagome, t-thank you," he curled up against her.

"You're welcome. Try to sleep, if you can."

"Mmmph." He said something she didn't quite catch. Eventually, the ibuprofen took his fever down enough that he quit shivering and he slept fitfully in her arms. She didn't sleep much for the rest of the night, though. She could feel that the magic binding his youkai half was fading faster now -- and that meant he was, too since the two were tied together.

-------------------------------

Willow woke to silence in the hotel room. It was well past dawn. She sat up, dislodging the laptop still resting on her stomach -- the monitor flickered on as the motion woke the computer from 'sleep' mode. She yawned sleepily, blinking away eye crud.

After a moment's fuzzy thought, she realized she'd fallen asleep while reading files that she'd had scanned and e-mailed from England. Inuyasha research.

He was so much more than just a Big Bad hanyou.

_He killed Kennedy_, Willow thought, with acute grief. It hurt _more _to think that someone who was so solidly on the side of the light (according to the research) had killed her girlfriend. Had he gone bad somewhere along the line, perhaps been cursed with black magic of some kind? Lost his soul? Or just lost his humanity, in a maelstrom of grief when Kennedy had killed his wife ... _Damnit, I know that mindset. Damnit. Damnit. _

She'd _been _there. And she'd done a whole lot worse than kill Slayers -- said Slayers had been hunting Inuyasha with deadly intent and wouldn't have hesitated to take _him _out if he hadn't been the better fighter. _Kill or be killed_. _He chose to kill and live himself. _

She raked a hand through her red hair, and glanced over to Buffy's bed -- which was empty.

_Probably hooked up with Spike_, Willow thought, with a little amusement. _I hope they're having fun. Xander's going to have kittens when he finds out she didn't come home after 'patrolling' -- yeah, she's having some fun with Spikey Goodness ..._

Willow made herself blush when she realized the double entendre there.

--------------------------

It was still three days to the new moon, Kagome thought, grimly. By morning, Inuyasha had developed a horrible hacking cough and what she thought was a sinus infection. He was clearly miserable -- he sat hunched up under her quilt on the couch, staring at morning kiddy-cartoons and probably not actually seeing them.

"Here. Try to eat. You have an appointment with my doctor at noon." Kagome handed him a cup of ramen noodles and then settled on the couch beside him.

He cupped the soup in his hands, sipped it, then made a face. "Tastes weird."

_I'm not surprised, _she thought. _Taste buds are rapidly replicating cells -- they're probably going to be one of the first things that he loses as well, depending on how things progress. If his body's shutting down, he's going to lose his sense of taste pretty quickly. _

"Eat it anyway. You need the calories to fight this." _If he even can, _Kagome thought, chilled. What she sensed from him as a miko was truly frightening. Last night had been the best night of her life ... but this morning was a nightmare. Because she'd studied enough biology in relation to her miko abilities to have a good idea about what would happen to him. Seeing her worst fears confirmed ... she tried to keep her expression pleasantly neutral, but judging by the look he shot her, she wasn't entirely successful.

_Maybe he just has an ordinary case of the flu, _she tried to tell herself.

Suddenly, he set the soup down on the floor and stumbled towards the bathroom. He vomited until only bile was left; mouth set in a thin line against her own sympathetic nausea, she crouched next to him, holding his long hair back. Her hands were coated with the strands that were now falling out in clouds. When it seemed nothing more wanted come up, he slumped sideways against the bathroom cabinets and said miserably, "I'm dying, aren't I?"

She couldn't lie to him, not on this. So she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close and said, "Inuyasha, you might, if I can't break this spell on you."

"Tell me the truth, Kagome. I want to know. Can you do it?"

"I honestly don't know. But I'm going to try. You know I'll try."

He pressed his cheek against her shoulder. "Thank you."

-----------------------

The doctor diagnosed influenza A and secondary pneumonia and sent them off without further investigation, but with a prescription for Tamiflu, what the doctor termed "the good stuff" cough syrup, and a different type of antibiotics than what she'd given him the night before. The doctor hadn't seemed overly worried by his symptoms; he'd simply said, "Take him home, put him to bed, he'll be fine in a week. He's otherwise healthy."

Kagome feared he would be dead in a week, but maybe the medication would buy them enough time to break the spell on him. She would have preferred that the doctor investigate further, maybe do some blood work, but then again, what was he going to find? She wasn't sure if he discovered anything significant (either a seriously suppressed immune system, anemia, or evidence of kidney or liver failure) that a hospital was even the best place for Inuyasha right now, as long as he wasn't in need of critical life support.

And if they drew blood in the hospital ... she wasn't entirely sure _how _human he was, nor what the hospital would do if their tests picked up anything weird. On a basic level, he was human, but she wasn't didn't know about the fine points of blood chemistry. And what his genetics would look like right now would be anyone's guess.

Anyway, her miko senses said he was sick but not that critical yet. And catching the flu _might _not be an indication that his immune system was going south ... He'd probably never been human long enough in his life to have caught even the most basic of germs -- he had no immunity to anything. That was another reason for not getting him into a hospital; he'd have _no _immunity to the bugs found in the typical clinical environment.

And then there'd be the complication of getting him discharged (or sneaking him out) in a few days when she was ready to try to break the spell on him ...

If he got worse, she'd take him to the emergency room. She was well aware that he could go downhill in a hurry, but she honestly didn't know what else to do.

"You hungry?" She asked him.

He hunched up under her quilt in the passenger seat of her car, and gave her a look that said _not really_. He was far too pale, eyes glittering with fever, lips cracking and peeling. He rubbed his running nose with the heel of his hand, and she made a face. "There's tissues in the glove box."

"Thanks." He fumbled them out and wiped his nose. "Seven hundred years and I die of a germ. It's perfect, ne?"

"You're not going to die of this," she said, with more confidence than she felt.

"Keh. I don't know how you humans deal with crap like this. I'm _ready _to die, I feel so shitty."

"That had better be a joke," she gave him a sharp look, which he met with a crooked, tired smile that said, yes, he was joking -- mostly. Inuyasha's sense of humor was sometimes a bit stunted under the best of circumstances and a 102 degree fever wasn't helping matters.

She pulled into a fast food drive through, and asked, "What do you want?"

"Not hungry," he muttered.

"What will you _eat_? Because you're eating something even if I have to shove it down your throat."

"Do that and I'll bite you ... French fries. Soda." He coughed again. She wasn't sure which worried her more -- the fact that he wasn't hungry (because Inuyasha was always hungry) or that he wasn't arguing with her beyond token resistance.

She ordered a tub o' fries for him, and a matching tub o' Pepsi; American food proportions never ceased to amaze her. You could feed a family of four for a week with the average dinner entree at a typical restaurant.

"Ketchup,'" he requested, then coughed thickly.

He did eat, to her relief, finishing the entire serving of french fries by the time she emerged from a pharmacy with his prescription. Calories were a _good _thing right now, she thought. He swallowed the pills with the last of the soda, and without complaint. The little plastic cup of cough syrup he sniffed, then swallowed with a grimace when she glared at him threateningly.

"Thirsty," he muttered, leaning against the car window.

---------------------------

By the time they got to her apartment, Inuyasha was dopey from the codeine laced cough syrup -- she guided him up the steps and into her home, then into the bed, where he flopped with a muffled complaint that she didn't quite catch. He was snoring heavily in moments.

Inuyasha sleeping was probably a good thing. She needed to do some serious research -- breaking Willow's spell wasn't going to be easy. Among other things, she had never tried to _break _a white magic spell before; her powers were strongly slanted towards purifying evil.

_I'll do it even if it kills me. There has to be a way._

Four hours later, she had a list of possibilities for saving him, and a strong need to talk to someone with more experience. _Need to take a field trip -- I think the owner of the Witch's Books may be willing to help me. _She was rapidly realizing just how out of her depth she was.

She rose and padded into the bedroom, wanting to let Inuyasha know she was going out.. "Inuyasha," she woke him with a gentle hand on the shoulder. "I need to run some errands and talk to someone. I'll be back in a few hours."

He blinked groggily at her, eyes unfocused. The codeine cough syrup obviously still had him zonked. "Ennn?" It was sort've an inquiry about what she wanted, though she wasn't sure she distinguished any words in the noise he made.

"In two hours, you need to take some meds. I'm going to set my alarm clock and leave them on the dresser for you. Okay?" She stroked his hair.

"Yeah, sure." He yanked the covers over his head. "Don't be gone long."

She patted his back through the blanket. "Don't forget the medication, ne? It's important that you keep your fever down and take your antibiotic."

"Better if you were here to remind me," he muttered, sounding needy and scared.

"I'll be back in time for dinner, I promise. There's a shopkeeper who might know a few things that I want to talk to." She continued to stroke his back -- he was sweating and the blanket was damp. "Shippou said he'd come by this afternoon; he might be here before I'm back."

He pushed the cover back a bit and looked at her with fever-bright eyes. "Kagome?"

"Yeah?" She brushed his hair back from his forehead.

"Be careful. Anything happens to you, I die too," he closed his eyes and said in a choked, hoarse voice. "I don't want to die anymore. I want to stay with you."

"I ... I'll be back." She swallowed down a very large lump in her throat. "I _promise_."

"Keh. You break that promise, I'll kick your ass." He rolled over, burrowing back under the blankets.

"Inuyasha?"

"What now?" The huddled, shivering pile of bedclothes demanded grumpily.

"I-I love you," she whispered. "I want you to know that."

"Like that wasn't obvious."

She chuckled, amused by his response simply because it was so very _Inuyasha_. That was an Inuyasha I-love-you-too, she thought, even if he hadn't actually said the words. Five hundred years and he really hadn't changed all that much. Knowingly, she said, "Glad the feeling's mutual, dog-boy. I'll see you later."

"Keh."

------------------------

The sign said _Los Libros de las Brujas_ -- Books of the Witches. It was in one of the seedier, tougher neighborhoods in LA; Kagome wasn't overly worried for herself, but she parked her car with a wince for the vehicle's safety and set the alarm and put her Club across the steering wheel. A year ago, she'd come out of the store to find both taillights on it smashed for no apparent reason.

The shop itself could only be seen by those who needed to find it, according to the owners. The street in front of it, unfortunately, didn't appear to be covered under the same spell.

Inside, the store smelled of old books, cinnamon-apple candles, and the very faint underlying odor of bookstore cat. Said cat, an elderly calico, greeted her with a friendly prrrrrip as she walked in.

"Hey Kitty," she said, bending over and scratching his ears. The bells on the door jingled as it closed behind her. The cat rubbed up against her ankles, then nipped at her hand when she tried to stroke his back.

"Oh. I'm sorry." She smiled at the cat, reminded of Buyo, "Was that too friendly?"

He made a meowing noise that almost sounded like a laugh, and licked one back leg.

"Is Sandy around?"

"Aiou!" The noise he made contained far too many vowels and not enough consonants to be considered a "meow." The cat stood up and walked towards the back of the store. She followed -- she'd never figured out if Kitty was just a cat, or if he was something Other. It often seemed like he understood human speech -- but that wasn't much of a clue. Buyo had sometimes seemed the same way.

The shop seemed to go on forever -- it was definitely bigger inside than out. And still, somehow, it felt cramped. Books, most of them _not _magical in origin, were piled on shelves haphazardly, and stuffed into stacks of cardboard boxes when bookshelf space ran out. There were racks of magical objects -- crystals, statues, weapons --, and bins of materials. Dusty glass display cases held jewelry and small valuables, plus a collection of rare comic books that hadn't been touched in the two years that Kagome had been coming here.

It was a familiar, comfortable place.

"Hey Sandy," she said, spotting the dark-haired part-demon woman who was one of the two brujas indicated in the shop's name. The woman was up to her elbows in a box of paperback romance novels, hair tied back with a bandanna, a smudge of dirt on her cheek, and cobwebs hanging from one of her short, curved horns. Like Inuyasha, Sandy was a halfbreed, though not of Japanese origins -- she'd met Sandy's father once, and he bore a striking resemblance to Pan from European mythology. Or the Christian devil, depending on how one looked at it ... fortunately, Sandy had simply gotten her father's horns and a health dose of magical ability.

She glanced over her shoulder, then grinned in greeting. "Kagome-san! Ohayo!"

She'd just _mangled _"hello" in Japanese. But Kagome laughed -- it was the effort that counted -- and said, "Hola, Sandy-san."

"Haven't seen you in at least a month." Sandy stood up. "Found that cute guy of yours yet?"

"Actually, yes," Kagome said, "That's why I'm here."

"You found him? Give, girl! That's just awesome! -- It is, isn't it?" Obviously, Kagome's face was betraying her concern, because Sandy sobered quickly and peered at her with concern. "Uh-oh, something didn't go right?"

"Inuyasha and I are good," she said, with a smile as she remembered just how good things had been, before he'd gotten sick. "I think things are working out between us better than I could have hoped for. However, he's got a nasty spell on him that I need to know how to lift. It's going to k-kill him in days if we don't get it broken."

"Oh dear," Sandy said, in concern. "That's not good at all."

"Yeah," Kagome said, quietly. "I've some idea how to break it, but I needed your advice. The witch who cast the spell on him is uber powerful."

Sandy scratched her head between her horns. "Can't you just purify the black magic?"

"Unfortunately, the spell on him isn't exactly evil." Kagome sat down on a box containing stacks of magazines, and said, "He... he's made some bad enemies, and they're on the side of the light. One of them's a pretty powerful witch ... she's cast a spell on him that's turned him human. The problem is, he's seven hundred years old now."

"Crap," Sandy said, "It's a binding spell?"

"Yeah, and I can't purify it because it's _good _magic. Wiccan, I think, though the wicca in question is wicked powerful, way more than usual." Kagome coughed. The dust in the store was irritating her chest.

"I thought you said your friend was a good guy," Sandy said, with a frown.

"He is. Believe me, he is." Kagome sighed. "He's also occasionally an idiot, and -- oh, it's a mess."

"If he's a good guy, can't you just talk the witch into lifting the curse?" Sandy asked.

"I highly doubt it. Inuyasha killed her lover, immediately after the lover killed Inuyasha's wife. Things have gone swiftly downhill from there. The witch knew exactly what she was doing when she put that spell on him; she fully intends for him to die." Kagome coughed again. "Easier just to break the spell. Then I'm hoping to leave town with him. I might go back to Japan -- my family will welcome him, I think. My mother likes him a lot, and my brother thinks he's the coolest guy ever."

"Lucky you. My mother's side of the family doesn't even acknowledge I or my father exist." Sandy rolled her eyes. "Okay, so you need to break a white magic spell. Who's the witch? That might make a difference; if it's someone I know, I might have an idea on what techniques would work best."

"Her name's Willow ..."

Sandy's eyebrows rose, then lowered into an intense scowl. "Willow Rosenberg? Who works with the Slayers? This is Slayer business?"

"It's a big huge mess, yeah, with the Slayers."

Sandy shook her head. "I can't help you on this one, kiddo. Sorry."

"But ..." Kagome said, seeing her hopes for assistance from the shopkeeper disappear.

"Willow's big league. She's probably the most powerful witch -- black _or _white -- in the world right now. I am _not _crossing her. I'm just a minor league demon, you know? A few charms, a few potions, fortunes told and -- fuck, woman, I'm a _halfbreed_. I'm not crossing the Slayers and I'm not even looking sideways at Rosenberg! The woman's taken on a God and the First Evil and walked away unscathed!" Sandy's voice rose as she spoke, and she grew visibly more agitated.

"First Evil?" Kagome said, baffled by the reference.

"Nevermind. Look -- if your trouble is with the Slayers, take it up with their leader. Buffy's not completely unreasonable." Sandy shook her head, vigorously. "Get your boyfriend to grovel at her feet and she might tell her witch to lift the hex on him. Know what I mean? _That_'_s _your best option. I highly doubt you'd be able to break a spell that Willow cast -- I am not kidding when I say she's powerful. And even if you do, she'll know, and then she'll be coming after you. Willow's bad news."

"Willow's a white witch, I thought."

Sandy rolled her eyes. "That's what she'd like everyone to think, but she hasn't always been, and she's ... scary. Scary, scary. I'm just a little demon shopkeeper, though, what do I know? None of my business who the Slayers count as their friends. And I'm not getting in the way of the Slayers or Rosenberg!"

"Well, going to Buffy's probably flat out of the question." Kagome rested her forehead in her hands. "If it wasn't before, it for damn sure is now."

"Kagome? What did you _do?_" The woman said, sounding nervous.

"Purified Buffy last night. She confronted us!" Kagome said, fists balling. "It'll wear off eventually, but I doubt she's much in a mood to help us out. Particularly since I let her think it might be permanent. It seemed like a good idea at the time ... And anyway, I don't think the Slayers are in a forgiving mood. The reason they're after my dog-boy is that he killed a bunch of their people. The reason he killed a bunch of their people is that they were hunting him and he logically concluded they were bad guys. The reason they were hunting him is he killed _one _of their people and apparently tore up Buffy herself when they killed his wife."

Sandy winced. Held up a hand. "Stop there. I -- I really do _not _want to get involved in this. I'm sorry, Kagome, but you need to leave."

"But ... can I at least buy the supplies I think I need?"

Sandy's face twisted into an expression of pure resolve. "Leave."

"I'm going. I'm sorry to have troubled you." Kagome wanted to either cry or hit something hard. Instead, she summoned her dignity and left as ordered. What else could she do?

Well, she _could _cry, and did, as she drove on to the next store -- where the shopkeeper met her with a _locked _door and a shout through the glass that Sandy had called ahead. She found the same sort of reception at every magic shop in the city; word spread quickly and _nobody _was willing to help her, not against the Slayers.

---------------------------

It was past two in the afternoon, and Buffy hadn't returned. Willow glanced at the clock radio in the hotel room, and finally worry beat out her strong suspicion that Buffy was enjoying some quality time with Spike. She picked up the hotel phone and dialed Buffy's cel phone.

It went immediately over to voice mail.

"Buffy. Gimme a call to tell me you're alive. And say hi to Spike for me."

She hung up, then, with a trace of guilt, called Giles. He wasn't going to be thrilled to find out that Buffy was almost certainly making up for lost time with Spike, but on the off chance that something was actually wrong ... yeah, she needed to let him know. Still, it felt a little like tattling on her best friend. _Gee, Giles, your Slayer's making two-headed monsters with a vampire. Just thought you ought to know so you can make with the frowny face at her._

"Okay, _so _not sixteen anymore," she muttered. She wasn't a teenager, Buffy's feelings for Spike had been publicly declared on more than one occasion, and ... it still felt like tattling.

"Giles speaking," he answered his room phone.

"Hey, Giles, it's Willow. Any chance you've heard from Buffy? She went out to patrol about midnight last night and I haven't heard from her since." Willow said, a little quickly.

He cleared his throat. She could picture eye-glass wipage on his shirt. He speculated, "She probably met up with Spike."

"I'm thinking you're right," Willow said, with a nervous giggle. "But she hasn't checked in. I left a message for her a minute ago. Her cel phone's off."

"Spike has a cel phone," Giles said, almost absently, "He had it on his belt."

"Do we have his number anywhere?" Willow asked, hopefully. _Duh. This is 2007. _Everyone _has a cel phone now. _

"Not that I've heard -- Angel might have it, since they were working together," Giles suggested. With a hint of blackest amusement, Giles said, "Angel's work number is in our database. He actually called and gave it to us a few years ago."

"Thanks, I'll call Angel," Willow said, with some nervousness -- she hadn't spoken to Angel in years. He still gave her the wiggins.

"Let me know if you can't get ahold of Spike, or she's not there ..." Giles trailed off.

"Will do." She hung up, called Watcher Central, got Angel's phone number from the bored receptionist ("Last name?" "He doesn't have one." "Oh, here he is -- they put him in the database as Angel first name Angel last name, under Angel and Partners.") and then dialed it.

Angel and Partners? She wondered what he was actually _doing _for a living these days. Doubtless, someone at Slayer Central knew. It was a measure of how busy she'd been for the last several years that she had no clue what Angel was up to. And really, she ought to, because, hello, evil alter-ego and everything ... _maybe I could fix that? _She thought, wondering if Angel's curse could be modified for greater permanence.

Angel picked up on the first ring. "Hello?"

She cleared her throat. "Angel. It's Willow."

"... Willow! What's wrong?" He said, without preamble, and with quite a bit of alarm in his voice. She supposed that was a perfectly logical response -- it wasn't like she'd ever called him, or even talked to him, simply for social reasons. In truth, even when he'd lived in Sunnydale, she'd never really _talked _to him. Not on a daily hey-we're-friends basis, anyway.

_As opposed to Spike, who will talk to you whether you like it or not!_

She answered his question, "Nothing, I don't think. I'm just trying to track down Spike's cel phone number."

Angel hesitated for one very pregnant pause, then said, "You want Spike's cel phone number. Willow, is something wrong? Because I can help too, you know."

"No, no," she laughed, uneasily. Angel was very low on the list of people they'd call for help -- and she could just hear Giles' reaction, or Xander's, to the thought of Angel fighting with them. At least from Xander, profanity would probably be involved in his response to that idea. And Angel had sounded _eager _to help. _Probably because of Buffy._ "No apocalypses looming or anything like that. I'm trying to find Buffy, and I think she might be with Spike."

The silence on the other end of the phone was longer this time. Very flatly he said, "Spike is with Buffy."

"I assume so. I want to make sure."

"Isn't that nice."

"Umm, Angel? Are you okay?"

"I'm going to kill him." It didn't seem like that was addressed to her; it was said almost absently. She heard a girl giggle somewhere in the background -- a giggle that was vaguely familiar. _That wasn't Cordy -- Cordy's dead -- maybe -- oh, surely not. _The giggle had triggered a memory of certain blond vampire ... _ack! I so do not want to know. I'm not even going to ask. _

_Still -- if that was Harmony, I do need to verify, _"Umm -- I _am _talking to Angel, right, and not Angelus? Because you do know Spike has a soul now, and ..."

"Yes, you're talking to me," Angel said, sounding annoyed by the question. "I'm _still _going to kill him. He'll just come back anyway. So Buffy is here in LA?"

"Yeah." Angel's reaction -- particularly the grumbled, _He'll just come back anyway, _had served to reassure her that Angel's soul was still firmly attached and hadn't been lost again. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. While she knew she could put his soul _back _if necessary, God only knew what sort of havoc Angelus might have created if he'd been running around loose for awhile.

Angel continued, still grumbling, "He's dead. He just doesn't know it yet. He told me he was taking a couple of days off work because he was helping a Slayer with a demon problem. He never said the Slayer was Buffy."

Suddenly, his irritation made a _whole _lot more sense. With a giggle, she said, "Oh my. And for what it's worth, he was probably talking about Kagome, not Buffy."

Angel just sighed. "I should have expected as much from him. How long has she been in town?"

"Three, four weeks. We've been hunting a bit of a big bad, though I think that's all finished. But Spike only made contact with Buffy about two days ago. We -- we never told her he was alive."

"I imagine Buffy was thrilled with that," Angel said, a bit of censor in his voice. "You didn't think Buffy deserved to know he'd come back?"

"It wasn't my decision," Willow said, defensively.

"I hope you don't try that line of logic on _her_," Angel sounded disgusted with her. Willow flinched a bit. "Got a pen?"

"Uh, yeah."

He gave her the number. "And tell Buffy I said hello."

Moments later, Spike answered his phone on the first ring, with a surprisingly professional, "This is Spike."

He sounded _different -- _confident, businesslike, even though it was just three short words. _He probably doesn't recognize the phone number. If he's working for Angel, maybe he thinks this might be a client._

"Hey, Spike," Willow said, "It's Willow ..."

"Oh, 'Lo, Red. Did you get my number from Lorne?" He was cheerful, friendly-sounding, and much more informal now.

"Lorne? No, from Angel."

"Ah ... you didn't happen to mention I talked to Buffy to the Boss Puppet, did you?" Spike said, after a moment's hesitation.

_Puppet? Where'd that come from? _"Afraid so."

"Ah, bloody hell, I'm so dead." Spike laughed. _Laughed_.

"Well, just tell Buffy I called, 'kay? I just wanted to make sure she was okay. And, uh, have fun. Angel wants you at work first thing tomorrow morning and I'm going to go now because this is embarrassing even talking to you ..." Willow started to hang up, blushing ferociously.

"Woah, hold on a sec, Red. Buffy's not with me!" Spike protested, sounding suddenly alarmed. "I haven't seen her since night before last. You thought we were ..."

"Uh, not with you? Please tell me you're joking, because you do that, right?" Willow reacted to Spike's concern with a sudden stab of fear of her own. _If she's not with Buffy, this is not good. _

"Buffy's not here." Spike said, grimly. "I haven't seen her. She didn't come home after patrolling?"

"No. She did some research on Inuyasha and then said she was going out ... you don't think she ..." Willow said, then hesitated, "Inuyasha isn't a bad guy, is he?"

Spike snorted. "Depends on your definition of 'bad guy' and who you are."

"I'm going to go talk to them," she announced, without hesitation or much thought. Inuyasha and Kagome certainly had motivation to hurt Buffy, and truthfully, opportunity and ability as well. _A Slayer with magic. Damnit, I really wish she was on our side -- she could be a handful if she decides to make trouble. And if she loves Inuyasha like Spike says, hell, she's _got _plenty of reason to make our lives very difficult. _

"Wil, might be best if I ..."

"_I _am going," she announced. "It's _Buffy_. If they've done something to her, so help me God, I'll ..." she trailed off, swallowed hard, and said, "Spike? If they've hurt Buffy, I swear to you, they will _pay_."


	8. Chapter 8

--------------------

Chapter 8

--------------------

It was several hours past the two hours she'd promised when Kagome returned to her apartment.

_Nobody in this damned city has the guts to stand up to the Slayers. This is wrong! _

She'd hit every magic shop and bookstore in the city -- and, at last, her backpack was now stuffed with books and supplies she thought she needed. This was only because she'd finally gotten smart, called Shippou, and gotten _him _to go into a store and buy what she needed, since the city's shopkeepers were obviously collaborating against her in some sort of conspiracy. Apparently Sandy had called every other book store in the city to alert them.

Shippou's shapeshifting abilities appeared to be dramatically approved. He'd morphed in front of her and had gone in as a middle-aged woman -- grey haired, overweight, wearing too-tight knit pants and a midriff revealing crop top. Given his preferred form was male and rather sexy (which she still found too weird for words) and his real form was a five foot tall bushy-tailed humanoid fox, she figured nobody would _ever _suspect that woman was Shippou!

Still, to avoid raising suspicion, they'd made multiple purchases at different stores. Candles at one, books at another, incense at a third, a focusing crystal at a fourth.

"Do you know what to _do _with all this?" Shippou had asked, skeptically, after the fifth purchase, of an assortment of herbs, plus chalk and candle holders.

"I'll just follow the directions in the books for breaking a binding. It can't be that hard. I'm not completely clueless."

"You're not a Wicca," he said, skeptically. "You're a miko."

"Yeah. I wish I could've talked to someone who might have given us some guidance. But there's a couple different binding-breaking spells in here that I can try. If one doesn't work, I go on to the next one. At least I know I _do _have the magic necessary, it's just not my normal style. And I've got the determination."

"Yes, that you do," he agreed, with a grin. "Still, let me see if I can't round up some help for you that _is _willing to cross the Slayers. Not everyone's terrified of them."

So Shippou was off talking to his friends, and Kagome had hurried home at last -- it was far later than she'd promised Inuyasha, and she was a little surprised he hadn't called her on her cel phone. She opened her apartment door and stepped into the dark interior.

"You're late."

"Gomen nasai, Inuyasha. I ran into a bit of trouble."

"Figures."

He was curled up on a couch watching the TV -- though given that an infomercial about a vacuum sweeper was running, she wasn't sure if he'd actually been paying attention to what was on the screen.

"How do you feel?"

"Shitty. You got what you need?"

"Mostly. Shippou's trying to track down a few experts 'cause I'm _not_, but I think this is doable, Inuyasha."

"Keh." He coughed hard for a moment, then said shortly, "You're lying to me."

_Damn him_, she thought, and settled onto the couch beside him. She'd never been able to successfully lie to Inuyasha. He was just too suspicious and wary, too cynical. "Inuyasha, I will give everything I have to save your life. You know that."

"Feh. Won't be enough." He rolled over onto his side on the couch beside her, head settling into her lap, knees tucked to his chest. His t-shirt was damp with sweat.

She stroked his shoulder gently. Tears pricked at her eyes, because she _was _scared she would fail him. He squirmed a little, trying to get comfortable, glanced up at her, and then scowled and sat back up when he saw she was crying.

"Don't do that," he sounded cross. When her tears flowed more freely, his eyes widened and he said in a tone approaching panic, "Don't! Kagome!"

He coughed again, fighting for air with his lungs full of crap from the pneumonia. She sucked in a ragged breath of her own, aware she was upsetting him, "I'm sorry, Inuyasha. Maybe I should leave you alone. This is ... this is hard, it hurts, this wasn't how I envisioned meeting you again."

"Keh. Don't go. Just don't cry!" He coughed until he turned blue and then he started drawing rapid, shallow breaths, trying to get enough oxygen. She thought he was worse despite the antibiotics, and wondered if it wasn't time to take him to the hospital. _If I do, getting him out again is going to be difficult ... damnit, I don't know what to do._

"Okay, I'll stay." She stroked his hair. "Just relax."

"Kinda hard to do, can't fucking _breath_, Kagome." He glanced up at her.

When had his cheekbones gotten so sharp, his eyes so dark and sunken? He'd lost weight in just a day or two -- had he been eating? No, she didn't think he had. French fries, a soda, a couple of bowls of noodles. Not much in two days.

"Are you hungry?" she asked, softly.

"Nuh-uh. Too hard."

"Thirsty? I can make some hot tea. It might help."

"Just stay here." He reached an arm out, scooped the remote off her coffee table, and changed the infomercial to a cable channel that was playing soft jazz. "Crappy TV. That's better."

"Okay." She leaned back against the couch cushions, hand resting on his shoulder. Her miko senses said he was really sick. Again, she wondered if she shouldn't load him in the car and take him to the emergency room. Maybe a different antibiotic, oxygen, other medications ... maybe they might be able to buy him some time ... because she was scared that he was not going to make it to the night of the full moon.

"Kagome," he said, "I'm going to die."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact, and it chilled her to her bones. "We need to get you to a hospital."

Very firmly, he said, "_No_. Kagome ... _no_. They'll stick me full of tubes and needles and drug me until I hallucinate and I'll linger for days with some machine breathing for me and not even able to piss by myself." He started coughing again. When he was done, and he'd caught his breath, he added, "Fuckin' A. No damn hospitals."

"They can keep you going until I can break this spell on you!" she protested.

"Feh. I promise I'll stick around long enough for you to try when the moon's new. Don't want to die much; kinda like being here with you. But I'm seven hundred years old an' I've seen good deaths and bad deaths. Don't want no bad death for me. You fail, you let me figure out a way to die easy. No fucking hospitals. That a deal?"

She didn't want to make that bargain. Didn't even want to _think _about it.

"Kagome, deal?" he repeated, lifting his head up from her knees.

"O-okay." She said, voice shaky. "Deal. No hospitals."

"Thank you," he murmured, and she remembered when he thanked someone, he always truly meant it. He paused, and added, "Don't you start crying again, woman."

"S-sure," she said, forcefully swallowing back a sob.

It was then that someone knocked on the door. Kagome jumped; Inuyasha drew a startled breath in and started coughing again. Kagome made a face; she did _not _want to answer the door. Maybe if she ignored them, they'd go away.

"Open the door, Kagome!" An annoyed voice demanded. The voice was female, and vaguely familiar. "Open it now!"

"Fuck," Inuyasha said, sitting up. "That sounds like trouble."

"Stay put," she told him, not wanting him to stand up. She walked to the door and opened it cautiously.

Behind her, Inuyasha growled a low rumble. _How the heck does he do that when he's human_? The growl was weak, but real.

It was Willow at the door, who gave Inuyasha a startled look before saying, "Uh, hi."

Kagome said coldly, "Unless you're here to lift the spell on Inuyasha, get the fuck out of my face. Be glad I'm not inclined to murder or you'd be dead, woman."

Inuyasha's growls turned into a fit of coughing. She turned back in time to see him hunch over and choke until he started to retch.

"Where's Buffy?" Willow put a hand out, stopping Kagome from shutting the door in her face.

"Haven't seen her since last night," Kagome eyed Willow speculatively.

"Since ... last night." Willow said, danger in her voice.

"Yeah. Get lost."

The witch shifted uneasily, looking past Kagome at Inuyasha.

"He's sick. Get out. He doesn't need to see you here; _you _did this to him."

"What. Did. You. Do. To. Buffy!" Willow said, dangerously. "We haven't seen her since last night. Spike hasn't seen her. Nobody has."

"Guess you'll figure that out when you find her," Kagome said -- unwisely -- but she was just about as angry as she'd ever been in her life, and it was all she could do not to swing a punch at this woman. Horrible grief was rapidly turning into blinding anger. Because this bitch was the one who'd hurt Inuyasha -- Inuyasha was going to _die _because of her unless Kagome could pull off a miracle.

The woman's eyes suddenly flared black and terrible, and Kagome remembered being told Willow hadn't _always _been on the side of the light. In a much, much more dangerous tone of voice, Willlow demanded, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO BUFFY!"

"Chill out, bitch," Inuyasha said -- from immediately behind Kagome, just as she was taking a step backwards. She bumped into him and his hands steadied both of them by grabbing onto her. "Buffy's fine. Minus a few super powers, but Kagome didn't actually hurt her ..."

"You stripped her of her powers." Flat, dangerous words. The hair on Kagome's neck was standing on end. Power crackled around the witch. She crouched, knowing fighting someone like that would lead to a very short and pointless battle with her losing in the end, but she was willing to try.

"Willow." One sharp word, from behind her. "Willow, stop."

Willow ... hesitated.

Two men hurried up to the apartment door -- one was Spike, but it was a dark-haired man with an eye patch who'd called her name. "Ah, shit, Willow. What the fuck did they _do_?"

"What," Willow said, mostly ignoring him and sounding just as dangerous as before, "Did. You. Do. To. Buffy."

"'T miko purified her." Inuyasha leaned against the door jamb and coughed into his fist. Kagome glanced sideways at him; his eyes were the only thing with any color in his face. "'S temporary, but I imagine she's sulking a bit right now. She lost but good."

"Purified her." Willow said, flatly. She sounded only marginally less threatening. Spike made an odd noise; Xander said a rude word.

"Drove the demon in her out," Inuyasha snorted. "She's fucking normal now."

"No Slayer powers?" Xander sounded almost as scary as Willow.

"She confronted us. I've _seen _her fight." Kagome shook her head and explained, "It seemed like the best way to defuse the situation. I don't -- I don't want anyone else to die. Not Inuyasha, not Buffy. Know what I mean? And she pissed me off, anyway."

Willow blinked a couple of times. Her eyes were normal, suddenly. She heaved a sigh, and glanced back at Xander, who held his hands up defensively. "Don't look at me."

"You're coming back to the hotel with us," Willow said, shortly. "Both of you."

"Inuyasha's sick!" Kagome protested. At this point, it appeared that the only thing that was keeping the hanyou on his feet was friction between his shoulder and the wood of the door frame. He was watching them with glittering, angry eyes but it was obvious he was at the absolute last limits of his strength.

"Carry him to the car. Spike?" Willow nodded at the vampire.

Kagome crouched, willing to fight to stop this. She didn't know what the witch had in mind, but she wasn't going to let them touch Inuyasha -- not even Spike, who up until now had seemed to be a friend.

"Don't," Inuyasha said, reaching out again to touch her. He shook his head slowly. He gave the vampire a dirty look, then transferred his weight to Kagome's shoulder. "I'll _walk_."

_Please don't insist on carrying him_, Kagome silently begged. She could see that Spike didn't think that Inuyasha could make even a few steps by the dubious look on his face. Inuyasha's formidable pride had surfaced, however, and he would be humiliated if he had to be carried. Bad enough that he needed any help at all in front of enemies.

_If I fight them, he'll join in, and he'll get hurt. And I don't think I can win. _She wrapped her arm around his waist and guided him in the general direction of the parking lot. She seethed as she walked. _Can't they just let him be in peace? Haven't they done enough?_

Willow's car was a rental -- a SUV, with three rows of seats. Spike flopped into the back row, Xander and Willow took the front, and Kagome helped Inuyasha into the middle seats. The ride was silent except for Inuyasha's harsh, rapid breathing, though you could practically taste the tension in the air.

"They were hunting me," Inuyasha said, finally. "Don't hurt Kagome 'cause of me. She wasn't even here. Your girls, they were hunting me. First time, I was -- was thinking about following her, ya know? Sitting on a picnic table in the park, all alone, _alone ..._" he coughed, wretchedly, "... I had _nobody_. Amelia'd always been there and then she was _gone_. 'N it hurt, it hurt so bad ... then they attacked me. Weren't bothering nobody. Just wanted to be alone with my hurts. Figured I'd killed the one who killed Amelia and we were square."

"Shut up. I don't want to hear this." That was Xander. "I _knew _those four girls. Found two of them myself. Helped train them."

"They attacked _me _..." Inuyasha trailed off. "I was hurting so much ... still hurts. Still want to kill. Won't, though. Had enough. I've _had enough_."

He coughed, doubling over as far as the seat belt would allow. Kagome said bitterly, "Can't you just let him be?"

"Next time, it was just two of them. Stupid. Came at me with swords. Little _girls_. I killed little girls."

"Naomi was fifteen," Willow said, sounding too calm. Inuyasha's words were obviously bothering her. She flicked a turn signal on, made a left at a light. "Arial, twenty. But I always thought she looked about twelve."

"Didn't see that. Just saw people attacking me. Then I saw their faces. After. You ... sicced ... _little girls _on me." He coughed until he gagged, and slumped back against the seat.

"I've heard enough," Xander growled again. "Shut up, you."

"Maybe you need to hear," Kagome said, bitterly.

"Next time ... next time ... It was easier ... easier to fight back." He had his eyes closed. "I knew they'd try to kill me. Each time ... got easier. Then Kagome ... I tried to kill _Kagome _because all I saw was a Slayer. Didn't know who she was, and I no longer cared. Just tried to kill her because I figured it was me or her and I'd rather it be her ... I was so lost ... when she saved my life ... from you assholes ... I ... I started to remember ... to realize ... I killed little girls. They were just girls."

He trailed off, silent, eyes closed. Kagome slipped her arm around his shoulders. "They _were _trying to kill you, koi."

"So-so did Sango. She tried to kill me too. Remember?" He pulled away from her touch. "You probably remember better than me."

There was no comment from the front of the car, though Kagome saw Willow and Xander exchange a long look. From the back of the car, Spike muttered, "Life's so much simpler when you're evil, ain't it?"

"Shut the fuck up, Spike," Xander growled.

Inuyasha coughed -- but there might have been just a hint of the blackest of laughs in that noise. "You might be right. But the friends are better when you're a good guy."

He looked at Kagome when he said that. She couldn't help but smile, in response. Inuyasha nodded, ever so slightly, and closed his eyes and leaned against the SUV's window. He rode that way, seemingly almost asleep or unconscious, for the rest of the ride.

Kagome didn't quite manage to keep the tears from running down her face. Inuyasha was too out of it to notice; the others said nothing and avoided looking at her.

-------------------------


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

----------------------

Inuyasha sat on the unmade hotel room made in a pose that was rather familiar to Kagome -- legs crossed, hands propped on his ankles, shoulders hunched. It was almost a parody of what he looked like when he was healthy; his head was hanging, his eyes closed, his elbows locked as he propped himself up. His back arched as he struggled to suck air into his lungs. He was shivering.

He was too exhausted to glower.

Willow and Xander had added three more people to their numbers -- the dark-haired Slayer Faith, and the older scholar, Giles, and a very geeky boy named Andrew. Kagome wasn't sure whose side Spike was on -- it appeared they didn't know, either, because Spike seemed to occupy his own island of personal space. He was sprawled in a chair, leaning back, watching the room with blue eyes that seemed to flicker between amused and worried at unpredictable intervals.

Faith grabbed a blanket off the other bed and thrust it at Kagome. "Here. Your demon-boy looks like crap."

Kagome draped the blanket around Inuyasha's shoulders. He glanced up, shot the room a general glare of dislike, then seemed to withdraw back into himself. She'd tried to get him to lay down, earlier, but he said it was easier to breath sitting up. _And laying down is vulnerable, _she thought.

"So what, precisely, did you do to Buffy again?" Giles demanded. Giles had authority, in his voice and the way that the others related to him. Also, she was picking up vibes of _power _off of him -- nobody had said anything, but she thought he might be a sorcerer of some sort in his own right. And not a nice one. There was a faint aura of evil to him, lying well buried but still part of his soul. But contrasting with the evil there was also a goodness to him as well. In truth, she was having a hard time figuring him out.

She suspected he'd make a hell of an enemy, if it came down to that. Spike had mentioned he was a father figure and mentor to both Buffy and Willow and Xander -- which, she thought, explained a few things.

She answered his question after a moment of thought, "I purified her. Drove the demon out. It'll come back, but she won't have any Slayer powers until it does." Kagome sat down next to Inuyasha. He didn't look up, and she could hear his breath bubbling in his chest now. He was dying, she thought. These people were so cruel; she wanted to rage and scream and cry at them, and it was taking everything she had to keep her expression neutral. Screaming and crying was an option she was keeping open, however, for the near future.

"We could use that for Dana occasionally," Xander muttered under his breath. This got him a glare from everyone else. "Hey! She tried to cut my arm off!"

Xander was completely normal -- no super powers, no magic. Just a whole heck of a lot of guts, to be hanging out with this crew and fighting their fights with them.

"Kinda know that feeling," Spike said, and made a curious gesture -- he grasped one forearm with the other hand and seemed to wince. Then he shook his head, "Chibi, that was ... Buffy's _vulnerable_ without her Slayer powers. And she's got a hell of a lot of enemies out there willing to take advantage of that."

Kagome snorted. _Heck of a lot of enemies_ was probably understatement -- Kagome had been a Slayer for three years, had been effectively fighting as one for two, and she'd accumulated a few villains with healthy grudges against her as well. However, she said, "I've fought more than my share of demons as an ordinary mortal. As much as I appreciate the super powers and all, I've _been _the vulnerable once too often to feel too sorry for her."

"Kagome," Inuyasha said, without looking up, surprising her with his words, "You had me and the others watching your back. And you were a miko. With a big fucking bow and arrow. Hardly defenseless or undefended. Without her powers, and alone on the street without a weapon, Buffy's just a girl ..."

"Actually, she handled herself quite nicely when we tested her without her powers once ... I would not underestimate her." Giles trailed off, then added, "But I would feel far more comfortable if I knew where she was. I think it is safe to say that at this point, something bad has happened since she still hasn't checked in."

Kagome winced. It had been almost twenty-four hours since they'd seen Buffy last -- or, more precisely, since _she _had seen Buffy last. Since she was the last person to have seen their friend, that automatically made her an object of suspicion. On due reflection she was surprised that they were being as civilized to her and Inuyasha as they were. "I didn't mean for anything bad to happen to her. I just wanted to get Inuyasha away from her. I ... she was going to attack him!"

"I'm not so sure that's she had attacking you in mind," Spike said, with a frown. "Buffy's smart. She may have been coming to _talk _to you."

"I ..." Kagome trailed off, suddenly understanding Inuyasha's aversion to _sorry_. It almost felt like an admission of weakness to apologize. And it was humiliating to her pride.

"If I were me, I could find her," Inuyasha said. It didn't sound like he was asking to be turned back -- it was just a sour, snarky, observation.

"How?" Spike tilted his head sideways. "This lot tried a locater spell earlier; she's either somewhere shielded or ..." he trailed off, suddenly looking grim and fierce. Kagome saw him swallow hard, though, adam's apple bobbing up and down. _Or dead_, she completed mentally. _He really and truly loves her. _

"Inu-youkai have phenomenal noses," Kagome explained, softly, since Inuyasha had fallen silent didn't appear to be answering Spike's question, "Their noses are far better than vampires, or almost any other demon out there. He could track her. I've seen him pick up a days-old scent trail in the middle of a busy village after it rained."

No immediate comments answered that explanation. She glanced away from Inuyasha to see that they were exchanging looks with each other.

"He could do it!" Kagome said, suddenly desperate and seeing an opening, a way to convince them to lift the spell on him. "Please! He'll do it! You have to trust me, Inuyasha's not a monster ! He'll help you find her! Please!"

"Feh. Don't beg. It's embarrassing," Inuyasha was clenching his jaw, obviously biting back either some groveling of his own or seriously sarcastic comments -- she wasn't sure which. He did, however, look a lot more alert than he had a moment ago.

"I ... if it matters, I _can _stop him, if he gets too ... aggressive," Kagome added. "The rosary around his neck is spelled to me; I can use it to pin him to the ground for a bit."

"Why was this rosary necessary?" Giles asked.

"'Cause I was ... an ... asshole ... when we met." Inuyasha sighed. "Still am, sometimes. Kagome needed a way to keep me from hurting her and to keep me under control."

Kagome said quietly, "He also lived five centuries without me around and apparently did a lot of good in those years. I don't think it's really necessary anymore, ne?"

"Keh. If Amelia could've Osuwari'd me ..." He hunched his shoulders further. "She was telling me to stop, at the beginning ... of the fight. I didn't listen."

"Could you really find Buffy?" Willow said, sudden resolve showing on her face.

"I could try." Inuyasha looked up, _hope _blossoming on his features. He coughed, struggled for breath, then said, "I can't promise I'll succeed. But I could _try_."

"Willow!" Giles protested, as the witch stepped across the room towards Inuyasha. "Are you sure that's ..."

"I'm sure." Willow touched both of her hands to Inuyasha's shoulders. Just like that, she broke the spell -- Kagome wasn't even expecting it, and stared with wide eyes and a hand over her mouth. Sudden terrible wild hope blossomed in her soul. _He'll live! He'll live! She's letting him live!_

Inuyasha _shuddered_, and floated up off the bed, eyes closed. Then, suddenly, he threw his head back as light flared. The demon in Inuyasha, long suppressed, roared to life.

The power faded after a moment, gravity reclaimed him and he landed with a bounce on the bed. Willow dusted her hands cheerfully, and said, "There. All fixed ..."

"Look out!" Kagome shouted, as Inuyasha -- an all-youkai red-eyed snarling fanged Inuyasha -- lunged across the room at her with his claws out and murder in every line of his body. "OSUWARI!"

He crashed to the ground, hard, between the two hotel room beds. His outstretched clawed hand missed Willow's back by a hair's breadth; his claws actually snagged her blouse and left a small hole without touching her skin. She scrambled out of the way over a bed, astonishment and real fear on her face. "Hey! You promised!" She said, sounding betrayed and hurt. Not angry, _hurt_. "You said you'd help us!

"Fucking demon! He double crossed us!" Faith yanked a knife out of a sheath at her belt and Spike, beside her, had vamped out in alarmed reaction. Willow threw her hands up, clearly summoning an offensive spell. Andrew just screamed like a girl, bolted into the bathroom, and slammed the door shut.

"STOP!" Kagome shouted at them. She crouched beside Inuyasha, rested a hand on his back, and said in a lower voice, "Trust me, he's not himself! He can't go anywhere. Give him a moment. I think he'll come back to us ..."

They hesitated. Mostly because she was in the way of any sort of attack, she thought. Which was interesting in and of itself -- they would attack him, but not her.

Since she seemed to have bought Inuyasha a moment's reprieve, she turned her attention to him. She would have given her right arm and half her soul to have Tessaiga within reach. The old sword was back in her apartment, however. She'd deliberately not mentioned the sword when the Slayers had kidnapped them -- she figured it was better to leave it behind than risk it falling into their hands. The thing had been wickedly powerful in the past, and she suspected he'd only added to its powers over the centuries.

The question was, though, _could _he get control of himself? He had a few times in the past, and he claimed not to need Tessaiga now for that, but these were unusual circumstances. "Koi," she said, quietly, stroking his back. "Inuyasha, love, c'mon. Let me know you're in there. Do I need to go get your sword?"

He was still stuck to the floor by the rosary, but he reached a clawed hand out and grabbed her wrist. She heard several people gasp, but he simply wanted to hold her hand. He fumbled his fingers around hers, squeezed once, then said thickly, "No. Just give me a minute. This isn't easy."

Slowly, as the effect of the rosary faded, he sat up. His eyes were blood red, and he was shaking -- with effort not to rend and tear, not with chills from fever, she thought. Those ruby eyes regarded her intently, then he reached out and pulled her into his arms and hugged her. "I'll be okay. A minute, just a minute here ..."

She could see the tension in every line of his body. He knelt, arms around her, head bowed, teeth gritted, as he fought for control. He _would _win -- neither of them had any doubt of that now. His reactions assured Kagome that he wasn't lost completely in a youkai rage -- he was talking coherently, and he was holding her onto her like a lifeline rather than pushing her away. But it took him several long moments to regain his composure.

_Once upon a time, he would not be able to do this, _Kagome knew. _He has grown a great deal since I knew him. He's _stronger _in many ways. _

Finally, he let go of her, and stood up. His eyes were normal, the stripes on his cheeks gone -- he looked a little thin, but he was every inch himself. He coughed hard, clearly not completely recovered, but far, far better than he had been.

Kagome almost laughed at the expressions on everyone's faces -- mixtures of stunned disbelief, terror, amusement, and -- from Spike -- a smirk. _You planned this somehow, _she thought, catching that expression. _Or at least you made sure the pieces were in place for your friends to come to the conclusions you wanted on their own. Manipulative son of a bitch. _

Said son-of-a-bitch cleared his throat and said, "Well. That was certainly bloody interesting."

Inuyasha sat down on the edge of the bed. He was _still _too pale, Kagome thought, though he was obviously much stronger. He cleared his throat. "Damnit. It'll be a bit before I'm back to full strength. But I can _breath _again."

"Don't give me a reason to take you out," Willow said, warningly. She was trying to feel the hole in the back of her shirt with one hand groping over her shoulder. "You know I still can."

"I mean it about being sick of fighting. You guys leave me alone, I leave you alone; life goes on." Inuyasha drew another deep breath, coughed at the end of it, sniffled a couple of times, then said, "Let's go find your damned Slayer bitch so's I can sleep for about a week, after."

-----------------------------

Inuyasha, back to normal, was just amazing. Kagome had no words to describe what it was to see him right now. He was so _alive_. He cast about in the parking lot, sniffing the ground, on all fours. His long silver hair slid over his back, tumbling over his shoulder. Impatiently, he tossed it back and moved between two cars. He coughed a couple of times, but seemed to be doing fine overall. Kagome kept back, knowing he needed to concentrate.

Xander leaned over to Willow and muttered under his breath, "If Rover lifts his leg on a fire hydrant, can I ..."

Despise the fact that Inuyasha was a good forty feet away and Xander's voice had been very low, the hanyou looked up with a sharp, annoyed glare. He didn't _say _anything, but Kagome giggled as he went back to work. "Xander? A word of advice: Inuyasha's hearing is as good as his sense of smell."

"Sorry, _Rover_," Xander muttered.

"Hush." Willow elbowed him. "Don't be rude."

"His name," Kagome said with gritted teeth at Xander, "Is Inuyasha."

"So says the girl who calls me 'dog-boy' on a regular basis!" Inuyasha sat up on his haunches and looked at them over the hood of a car. Kagome grinned at him, hearing the affection in that grumpy snark from him. "I've got the scent. C'mon. She went this way."

He led the way down the street -- occasionally, he had to drop to all fours and sniff about, particularly in areas that were very busy. They were gathering stares -- though not as many as one would expect; this _was _Los Angeles. Hell, she'd seen a mime last week doing better imitations of a dog than Inuyasha ...

They reached an intersection and Inuyasha said, "I don't know which way she went. You people, wait here ..." and then he spent twenty minutes on all four corners, trying to pick up a scent trail.

_Nasty smells of oil and pollution can't be helping, _Kagome thought, watching him work from the opposite street corner. Though he was obviously still not feeling 100 -- she watched as he hacked up gunk, then spat -- he looked so much better it was amazing. She wondered if the germs simply weren't able to grow in his hanyou body due to a lack of compatibility with his biochemistry, or if he had magical resistance.

Giles asked her quietly, "Do you think he can really do it?"

"Track Buffy down? Sure," Kagome said, with confidence.

"He's kindof cute, actually," that was Faith, who was regarding Inuyasha with an amused grin.

"Faith, _ewww_," Xander said, in a you've-got-to-be-kidding-me tone of voice. "He's half dog!"

"At least he's not a giant bug," Willow said, with some irritation at Xander. "I agree with Faith. He's hot. And it's dog _demon_, anyway."

"What do you know? You're gay." Xander clearly wasn't happy that the women were ganging up on him. Kagome was a little surprised by their sniping at one another, given the grim circumstances of Buffy's disappearance -- but maybe this was _how _these people dealt with stress.

"I'm not _blind_," Willow sniffed, only jokingly offended by his comment. Kagome was slowly realizing this group had been together a very long time; some of the banter she'd overheard reminded her a bit of old times, in the past, between her and her friends. It made her feel a bit sad -- she'd never again see them; they were long dead and the well forever sealed.

"He's really yummy," Andrew agreed. Then he added defensively, "What? I'm so not blind either!"

"Half. Dog. Demon." Xander was nothing if not persistent. "Dog."

_Wonder what you think of me, Xander? _Kagome though, in irritation and a little sadness. The latter was for Inuyasha's sake -- he had to deal with this on a daily basis. It was her annoyance with Xander's bigotry that prompted her to say sweetly, "And he's as good in bed as he looks, too."

They _spluttered, _all but Spike, who chuckled and clapped her on the shoulders. She knew she was turning bright red -- and she suspected Inuyasha (who had definitely heard that, because he'd looked up from across the street) was blushing as well. But it had been worth the blush-factor to see Xander look like he'd swallowed a lemon.

"This way," Inuyasha shouted, after summoning his dignity.

They hurried across the street, where Inuyasha took a second to pull her aside and hiss in a very low, angry voice, "Don't _provoke _them, Kagome. Are you trying to make them lynch me later? You're _human _and Slayers kill people like me just for what we are! Don't give them any excuses! They might hurt you too!"

Sobered, she glanced at the group -- which, in reaction to Inuyasha's apparent irritation with her, had clumped together, except for Spike, who was still smirking and standing apart. All five of them were staring with expressions that ranged from amusement (Faith) to fear (Andrew.) Still, she thought that Inuyasha's concern was a little overdone -- after all, Spike and Buffy were obviously more than just friends.

On the other hand, it was clear by his body language alone, never mind a few things he'd mentioned, that Spike did _not _consider himself one of the gang. There was tension there, and mutual distrust. Old history, she supposed. Still -- she thought at least some of Inuyasha's paranoia was his past painful history talking; they might yet kill him for being a threat, but not for daring to love her. She hoped.

After a moment's glaring at them -- it was as if he was expecting them to say something about their relationship, and daring them to do so -- Inuyasha said, "Keh. She went this way."

He led the way through a graveyard -- Buffy had taken a circuitous route, and in two locations, Inuyasha paused and told them she'd slain vampires.

"She was human! No Slayer Powers!" Kagome protested.

"So?" Spike didn't sound at all surprised by this news. "Still knows how to do it, don't she?"

"And she's extremely fit anyway. Trained fighter." Inuyasha said, pausing from sniffing the grass. "Sango wasn't anything but a mortal girl either, Kagome."

"Oh. Yeah."

"I wish she'd come home," Giles said. "Or back to the hotel, anyway."

"She thought what Kagome did might be forever. Had something to prove to herself -- that she could be human and still fight." Inuyasha sat back on his haunches for a moment, regarding them with amber eyes that had a look far older than his perpetually youthful features should have allowed. Then, after a moment's regard, he took off at a loping run. He coughed and paused twice, propping his hands on his knees, but he still managed to set a pace that kept ordinary humans of the bunch puffing with exertion. They went over the graveyard fence, across a busy street, and down an alley. Kagome watched as Inuyasha wrinkled his nose and covered his mouth, obviously nauseated, by the scents of rotting garbage there -- but Buffy could have only gone one way, so they continued down it.

The alley opened up into a parking lot behind a grocery store. Inuyasha followed the scent trail across the asphalt, between two cars, across a loading dock, temporarily lost it near a noisome dumpster, picked it up again a hundred years further on, found another pile of vampire dust, and then came to a screeching halt by a parked semi trailer.

"Something wrong?" Kagome asked. He was standing there with nostrils flared and eyes wide.

"Fuck." He gave her an amber-eyed look -- wide eyed and worried. "Oh, _fuck._"

"What? What is it?" Kagome was alarmed by that expression. It said he'd found a problem that he hadn't expected.

"My brother." One lip lifted up in an involuntarily snarl.

"Uh ..." Willow said, sounding surprised and worried both -- the latter by Inuyasha's expression. "He has a brother?"

"He has a brother?" Faith said, in a very different tone of voice, his eyes lighting up. Teasingly, she asked Inuyasha, "Is he cute?"

"Keep your pants on, Faith," Spike said, looking as concerned as Willow did. "He's trouble. Inn't that right, Inuyasha? Remember reading about you and Sesshomaru.

"Inuyasha, _is _this likely to be a problem?" Kagome honestly had no idea what Sesshomaru was like these days. _Maybe five centuries will have mellowed him out a bit. _

"Depends." Inuyasha shook his head. "I haven't any idea why he's _here_, to start with, and Buffy smelled ... startled and scared. I think he grabbed her."

"Buffy doesn't get scared!" Willow protested, perhaps a bit too loudly.

"Oh, Yes, she does. Daiyoukai lord, right? Full blooded youkai, and powerful." Spike jerked a thumb at Inuyasha. "You lot think Inuyasha was a handful to take out, I'm betting Sesshomaru is ten times worse."

"Easily." Inuyasha agreed, surprising Kagome. He lifted an eyebrow her, seeing her expression, which was one of almost disbelief that he'd admit his brother was more powerful than he was. "I'm one of the good guys, ne?"

Oh. Yeah. She wondered which way Spike had meant it -- that Sesshomaru was a more powerful youkai or that he was more evil than Inuyasha. Not that Sesshomaru was exactly _evil _... though 'good guy' would definitely be stretching the truth as a description.

"Giles," Inuyasha addressed the Watcher, making him nervously tense at being singled out by the _dangerous evil demon_, "How widely did you spread the word around that you were trying to kill me?"

_Kusu. _Kagome followed his line of thought easily. _But how would Sesshomaru know?_

"What do you mean?" Giles asked.

Spike cleared his throat, drawing their attention. "I've been asking around about Inuyasha. In a few demon bars. Might've let it slip why I wanted to know about him ... never thought about him having a protector."

"He's hardly that," Inuyasha said, sounding disgusted. "Bastard's just sworn that only _he _is allowed to kill me. He'll take down anyone else who tries. Including, quite likely, Buffy -- and the rest of you, but Buffy was probably a convenient target to start with. With or without her powers, she wouldn't have been much of a challenge for my brother."

"Why didn't you go to him for help, then?" Willow said, sounding baffled. "I mean -- you _didn't _call him, did you?"

"Fuck no." Inuyasha folded his arms. "I'd rather die first." To Kagome, he added, in a lower voice, "He _really _didn't approve of Amelia."

_Oh. Right. Not only was she a hanyou, she was a _foreign _hanyou. And I wish I'd thought about Sesshomarou because I _would _have gone to him if it meant saving Inuyasha's life. On the other hand, I have no idea how to get ahold of him._

She wondered if he had a cel phone. Everyone else did, these days.

"That was why I left Japan. To protect her from my brother." Inuyasha's amber eyes held old, smoldering rage and resentment against his brother. Kagome sighed. _Five centuries and they're still enemies -- it almost sounds as if things got worse after I left. It's a shame, really._

"Do you think ... is she ..." Willow asked, with a shudder.

"I doubt she's dead yet," Inuyasha shook his head, making his pony tail swish back and forth. The silver and turquoise clip holding his hair back in that long pony tail picked up the glow from a street light and glittered. "He'd at least keep her alive long enough for you to use as a bargaining chip to get the curse on me lifted."

"But we lifted it!" Willow said, hope shining in her eyes. "So we just need to find him and tell him!"

"At which point, he has no reason to keep Buffy alive, and a few good ones to kill her. She _is _a Slayer." Inuyasha took a few steps, sniffing, then shook his head. "I think he grabbed her and took flight."

"He can _fly_?" Willow squeaked.

Inuyasha gave her an amused look. "Yes."

"Can _you_?" She asked, sounding intrigued.

"No. Unfortunately. Kagome, I think we should go back to the apartment -- I need to get Tessaiga if I'm going to go up against Sesshomarou." Inuyasha folded his arms. He seemed to be thinking. After a long moment, he asked, "You said that you couldn't find Buffy with a spell earlier, right?"

"No, I think she's somewhere warded against magic." Willow frowned. Kagome wondered what sort of warding would be proof against a witch who was supposed to be one of the most powerful in the world.

"Blood calls to blood, doesn't it? Could you find my brother if I helped? Find him, Buffy's probably there too." Inuyasha gave Kagome a sideways look, and flashed her the briefest of smiles. "I think the miko here brought home enough magical supplies last night to start a shop of her own. Candle's 'n incense 'n crystals and shit. We can set up what you need at her apartment."

Willow frowned at Kagome. "We could try that -- but Kagome, you were going to try to break the binding spell on him, weren't you?"

"Yeah." Kagome admitted.

"You'd have died." Willow said, shortly, and with apparent dismay. "That spell was set so that if anyone broke it besides me, it would have incinerated both Inuyasha _and _the witch doing the breaking."

Both Inuyasha and Kagome went pale. They exchanged a startled look. Inuyasha's lip lifted in an snarl at the mere thought, flashing a fang.

"I play for _keeps_ when I'm taking down big bads," Willow said, sounding annoyed that he was angry. Then she huffed a sigh and said, "Look, Kagome, when this is all over, I'll point you to some people who can get you properly trained. You've got enough power to be a danger to yourself, but if you actually knew what you were doing -- Kagome, you could be a seriously heavy hitter for the side of the light, eventually. Just don't mess with magic you don't understand."

"Feh. Kagome don't need to join with no Slayers. She's fine as she is. She could have handled your little booby trap, I'm sure of it." Inuyasha said, resting a hand on her shoulder. His claws were blunted by the fabric of her blouse, but he was definitely gripping her with a little more strength than necessary. He was definitely more scared by the near miss than he was letting on.

"C'mon. Let's hurry back to my place." Kagome said. The thought of Inuyasha meeting up with Sesshomarou _without _his sword was a sobering one.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

-------------------

(Author's notes are underlined here -- this is to make it easy to skip past 'em if you don't give a damn, I'm just feeling an urge to speak my piece here.)

This is a bit of a long-winded and grumpy response to a nasty private e-mail I received telling me, essentially, how _dare _I write a story where Inuyasha loved more than one woman. The writer felt this was impossible and way out of line with the facts of the Inuyasha universe. Only she said this not so politely. Actually, she demanded that I delete this story until I could, "fix it!" Obviously, she's a nut. And I'm probably baiting the nut here, but oh well ... 

I thought I would put my thoughts on the matter out there this publicly because inuyoukai mating beliefs do seem to be a "fanon" vs. "canon" issue. And I have never been one to cow to "fanon" beliefs when writing fanfic. 

I _know _it is fanon that inuyoukai would mate for life. It's repeated so often that it took me a bit to realize it wasn't canon ... I've read quite a few fics where Inuyasha bites Kagome and "marks" her, and then they're bound heart and soul for all eternity (possibly including all future lives) and then Kagome has a litter of puppies and they live happily ever after. If this _is _based on canon, somebody please correct me ... because the person e-mailing me couldn't cite an episode or chapter of manga when I asked her for it. (She said she "didn't have to.") And I don't think it is anywhere in canon ... I think the whole "mate for life and die when the mate dies" thing in Inuyasha fandom is just fan assumptions that have built up over the years until many fans think it HAS to be that way. 

But anyway, PBBBBBBbbbbbbbbbbb! insert rude noises Here's my thoughts on the matter.

First off, Inuyasha clearly loves two women in canon. Granted, they're the _same _woman on some sort of weird metaphysical level, but both Kikyou and Kagome would probably beg to argue that point for all practical purposes. And he does love them both. The problem for him is in the choosing ... and he's not ready to make that choice on the show.

However, the most telling thing about inuyoukai mating practices is that Sesshomaru and Inuyasha have different mothers. They're _half _siblings. This implies that, just possibly, their father loved more than one woman ... or at least was mated to more than one ... either he cheated on "Sessmom", he divorced her, or he's a bigamist. Any of those three options is mutually exclusive with "mating for life with no exceptions" and it is a not-insignificant part of canon. 

Also, finally, Inuyasha's half human. :-) And he has human emotions and feelings and develops human attachments to people. That's what makes him such a great character. He's the best of both worlds.

Anyway. Done venting. Thanks for putting up with this. On with the story.

(And to everyone who's sent me nice -- or at least well thought out -- comments, thank you also. I don't normally react this way to nasty comments from readers, but I thought this deserved to be addressed because it's a topic that bugs me a lot. And because I react rather twitchily to people insisting I can't write the stories I want to tell because my stories disagree with their world view.)

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"This Sesshomaru is amused," the demon informed her. "You are not what this Sesshomaru expected as the leader of men who could kill my brother."

Did he have to be so _hot_? Buffy shook her head, watching the demon lord. Even missing one arm, he was yummy, in an androgynous pretty-boy way. And she could see the striking resemblance to Inuyasha in the lines of his face -- though the resemblance ended there. They didn't even _move _the same way; Inuyasha was all ferocious energy and anger, and this guy was cool, suave lordliness.

He was very definitely not your typical yucky slimy demon.

Also, cave. Why did it have to be a cave? She hated caves. They smelled dank, the humidity made her hair frizz, and they reminded her of too many other battles. The whole ancient-temple theme in said cave was giving her an even worse case of deja vu. She'd seen buried ancient temples before, with the occasional variation of "buried ancient church" or "buried ancient shrine" or "buried military installation."

"Not men," she snorted, correcting his assumption about who she led. "Girls, mostly."

That earned her a curious half-smile from the creature. He said, with an odd tone, "Yes. Girls. The most dangerous creatures in the world."

"You got that right, buddy." Buffy tugged at the ropes restraining her wrists. Still no Slayer powers. "Imagine you'd know, though. You look like you want to be a girl yourself. Though, really, that fur thing of yours is _so _1980's."

He narrowed his eyes at her. Score! She made a mental note that Lord Sesshy-whatsit was vain as hell and sensitive about his masculinity. Though all one had to do was _look _at him, really, to know about that.

Powerless, hands and feet tied, on the floor of an ancient temple buried deep within a cave, her mouth was the _only _weapon she had at the moment.

"You are an impertinent human. Do you know who I am?"

"Like, duh, I'm guessing your name is Cease-Homey-roo or something like that. Way with the third-person arrogance." She flipped her hair back over her shoulder.

"You dare to talk to me in such a tone." His eyes narrowed at her, and he folded his arms. She hoped he was regretting kidnapping her. Once she got her powers back, she was going to make him regret it even more.

"You know what? Your dialogue really sucks. It's like 'B movie classic' or something. Can't you think of anything to say that's not a rip-off a bad horror film?"

"Such insolence ..." he muttered, looking like he was perilously close to losing his composure, despite his earlier claim that she _amused _him. Given that she'd been sniping at him for the last three hours, ever since waking up in his underground-temple-cave-thing, she was actually a little impressed by his ability to remain cool and collected. Because she'd been _trying _to piss him off. "This Sesshomaru can see why my brother tried to kill you."

"Yeah, well, he's toast."

"This Sesshomaru cannot allow that." His words were soft, deadly dangerous, and acutely threatening. She shut her mouth, suddenly aware that she'd gone too far. There was a difference between razzing the Big Bad because it was fun and it gave her an edge, and truly pissing him off. Oops, she'd just stepped over the line.

"So Rover's your brother," she mused, concealing her real fear with a question, "Any other loving family members I ought to know about? You know, so I know if I ought to be watching my back after I Slay your pretty ass?"

"Loving? Hardly." His eyes were cold, implacable. She didn't understand his response, either, until he elaborated, "I vowed once that only _I _would kill Inuyasha. I will not let another take that privilege from me. Particularly a human girl."

"So you want me to tell Willow to lift the spell on Rover, is that it?" Buffy's eyes flashed dangerously. Inuyasha was violent and dangerous; this demon, she was rapidly concluding, was sociopathic and ... annoying. "So _you _can kill him?"

"In the time and the place of my choosing," he said, very calmly. "And no one else shall touch him."

"Milord!" A creature appeared in the subterranean temple's doorway. Buffy _twitched_. It was a frog with a beak. "Milord, there's trouble! The vampires you kicked out of this lair are trying to reclaim it!"

"You bet there's trouble," Buffy muttered. And there was more coming. Her friends would find her ... _and then there will be hell to pay. _

Sesshomaru gave her a dark look before sweeping out of the room. "Watch her," he told the frog-thing.

"So what are you?" Buffy asked, after a moment's contemplation of the creature. "His toady?"

It hissed. "Jaken thinks the pretty human girl doesn't know what trouble she's in."

-----------------------

Willow regarded the hanyou with considerable wariness, and a little fascination, as she set up the summoning spell using the supplies Kagome had purchased plus a map purchased from the corner Circle K.

Inuyasha was crouched by the television in Kagome's apartment. He had his palms braced on the floor between his feet; in stance, he very much resembled the _dog _part of the dog-demon. The ears weren't helping his inhuman appearance; those amber eyes were uncanny, too. They were the almost same color as a vampire in game face, only he had that eye color all the time -- except when he was human in appearance, or full demon. She gathered he'd rather be hanyou than human, and _nobody _wanted him to manifest as a full demon including Inuyasha himself.

However ... well, Faith had been right when she'd observed he was _hot_. He wasn't exactly her type, but she couldn't fail but notice that he had a certain raw appeal ... It was his level of energy, Willow decided. And the whole bad-boy attitude. He was indisputably sexy -- not human, but close enough, and he was pure _male_.

Definitely! not her type. But she saw the appeal.

He met her gaze and she realized she'd been staring at him. Roughly, he demanded, "What?"

"N-nothing." She looked away.

"Keh."

Kagome was busy in the kitchen -- pouring soda for everyone into little plastic cups with ice, except for Inuyasha and Giles, who had both requested tea, and Spike, who wanted coffee. Willow idly wondered why the woman was playing hostess to them; they weren't friends. Wouldn't ever be friends, Willow hoped -- all earlier joking aside, Inuyasha gave her a serious case of the wiggins. She was afraid breaking Inuyasha's spell would turn out to be a mistake -- but there was _Buffy_. They had to rescue Buffy. Who was probably going to be pissed about the spell-breakage.

She was hoping and praying that she was making the right decision by releasing him.

Kagome passed out the drinks, then settled down next to Inuyasha. Willow glanced up from spell preps at that, noting how casual the young woman was around her demonic friend. She wasn't the slightest bit subservient -- and neither was the hanyou. They were friends, good friends, trusted friends. _Lovers_, Willow reminded herself, remembering Kagome's wisecrack earlier.

As Willow watched, Kagome said something low and apparently teasing to the hanyou, in Japanese. It earned her an un-amused look, a snort, and -- to Willow's astonishment, a very mild rebuke from him. "Speak English, woman, or they'll think we're plotting against them."

When Inuyasha said that, everyone in the room stared at them.

"What?" Inuyasha demanded, hunching his shoulders and glaring. "I'm right, aren't I?"

Andrew said something -- in Japanese. Both Inuyasha and Kagome gave him startled looks. He shrugged and added, in English, "Anime's _much _better when you understand what they're saying in the real Japanese. Dubs suck."

"You learned Japanese to watch cartoons?" Inuyasha said, incredulously.

"Not cartoons!" Andrew protested, with a little too much volume. "Works of art!" After a moment, he added, "Anyway, I'm really good with languages."

Inuyasha's ears had gone flat to his head in response to the volume of Andrew's voice. Kagome chuckled. "See dog-boy? Now they'll _know _I promised you a case of ramen after this is all over if you don't growl at anyone ... they know your secret weakness."

He gave the young Slayer a very dirty look, hunched up further, and muttered under his breath.

_Amazing. She isn't the slightest bit afraid of teasing him. Even though it pisses him off. I think she _likes _picking on him. _Whatever Willow had thought of Inuyasha before, she'd never pictured this. _This creature killed Kennedy. I should hate him. _

He met her eyes, then looked sharply away with a muttered word under his breath.

Kennedy had killed his mate of four and a half centuries, though. Willow's mind boggled at that kind of devotion. How long had she known Tara? Two years? And when Jonathon had killed her, she'd lost her mind for awhile. She'd hurt friends -- good friends -- _Giles -- _she'd very nearly destroyed the world, and if Xander hadn't ... hadn't had more guts than brains, she'd have done it, too.

Inuyasha had been married to the same woman four and a half centuries. Willow'd known plenty of marriages that didn't last a year. _He had to have been incredibly devoted to her. And _all _he did was kill Kennedy after Kennedy killed Amelia, at least to start. Then we hunted him ... and he restrained himself to killing Slayers in retaliation for being hunted. But he's not hurt anyone else that I've heard of._

She shook her head, uneasy with the conclusions she was drawing. _He's violent and he's dangerous -- but so are we. Is it possible everyone involved has fucked up in various ways? _

She knew she'd have a hard time forgiving this creature for Kennedy's death. The anger threatened to rise whenever she thought about it. But now she was pissed at Kennedy too, for being stupid. And Buffy, too, for her role in the whole fiasco ... and at herself, for not investigating things earlier and more thoroughly, until they had escalated to this point.

Willow realized she was just stalling now, because she'd had the candles and the incense all set up for several minutes. Just as she became aware of that, the hanyou said, "Oi! Witch, you about done there?"

"Y-yeah. I need you to sit opposite me, though." She indicated the other side of the map.

"Why didn't you just say that?"

He rose, took three strides across the room, and plunked down opposite her, after casually sweeping his sword out of the way with one hand, so it trailed behind him. He'd changed into bright red and coarsely woven garb that looked like it was straight out of medieval Japan, and wore the sword with the easy of long, long familiarity.

Both the sword and his outfit were given off an aura of _power_. The sword, in particularly, was heavily enchanted. She thought it had multiple layers of magic on it, and it was tied to the hanyou's very soul -- she could sense the connection.

"Witch?" Inuyasha was holding his hand out. "Whenever you're ready."

Among the supplies that Kagome had purchased was a little silver ceremonial dagger. Willow picked it up, then reached out and took the half-demon's hand in hers. His fingers felt _human_, mostly -- they were warm, dry, callused. The proportions were human; his body temperature wasn't abnormal. They were not the cold hands of a vampire, certainly.

His _claws _weren't human, however -- they were hard as steel, cold to the touch, and wickedly sharp. She'd seen what those claws could do, and had also seen Kagome fearlessly take his hand and hold it even when he could have shredded her with one good swipe.

He lifted an eyebrow at her.

_Staring, again_.

"Sorry. This is weird. I feel like you should be some unreasonable monster," Willow confessed. "We've been hunting you so long. Never thought I'd be sitting down to work with you to save Buffy."

"Feh. Been called that a _monster _a few times in my life." Heavy sarcasm filled his words. And old buried hurts, she thought. "But you're realizing I'm not too different from you, aren't you now, wench?"

_In more ways than you know, Rover, _Willow thought. She turned his hand over, palm up, and said, "I only need a little drop of blood for this. I'm going to stick your index finger."

"Don't worry about hurting me," Inuyasha said, with what was definitely a smirk. "I'm pretty indestructible in this form. You want to damage me permanently, you got to do it when I'm human. But you've already figured that out, haven't you?"

She ignored the snark, gritted her teeth, and drove the point of the silver dagger into the tip of his finger. He didn't even _flinch_, though Kagome -- who was now standing behind him -- certainly did jump in sympathetic reaction. Inuyasha pulled his hand away, squeezed the wounded digit with his other hand, and dripped a good sized blot of blood onto the map.

The rest of the spell was very simple and basic. He was right in that blood called to blood -- and the blood of an inuyoukai had some remarkable properties; Inuyasha appeared to share a few of them despite his mixed heritage. She could feel his inherent powers as she wove the spell to locate Sesshomaru. The magic came easily, even for her, and very quickly, she'd located the demon lord's location on the map.

"Just a word of advice," Willow said, standing up. She regarded him thoughtfully for a moment. "You might want to be extra careful that you never let a vampire drink your blood."

"Why the hell would I do something stupid like that?"

"Just ... don't." Willow said, amazed at the power she'd picked up from him. "That would be a bad thing."


	11. Chapter 11

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Chapter 11

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Author's Note: I've been asked what a "Circle K" is by a baffled non-US resident grin. It's a pretty ubiquitous gas station in the Southwest US -- they also sells basic groceries and everything from cel phones and stamps to beer and hot dogs. They're pretty much everywhere -- my small home town has four gas stations and two are Circle Ks.

This chapter comes to you courtesy of an, "Oh, it'll only be an hour ..." oil change, which is now stretching well into its third hour. Thank goodness for laptops. And I swear I'm going to do my next oil change myself ... it'd be faster and less aggravating.

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"So who rides with Rover?" Xander asked, nervously eying Inuyasha. It was obvious _he _didn't want to share a bench seat with Inuyasha in the SUV. On the ride over from the hotel to her apartment, Spike had sat next to them -- but Spike had just casually claimed the passenger's seat in the front. _Do the rest of you think he has cooties? Or rabies? _Kagome thought with irritation. Somebody would need to share the bench seat with them

There just weren't enough seats -- somebody would need to sit within biting distance of the hanyou.

"Ah, we'll just meet you there," Inuyasha said, with a feral grin at them, solving the problem.

"You'll take your own car?" Willow said. "That's really not necessary ..."

Kagome gave the woman a sharp look. Willow sounded apologetic. Coming from a witch who'd been willing to consign Inuyasha to a horrible, brutal death, Willow's earnest desire to _please _people seemed a real paradox. She wondered which was the real Willow -- the dangerously ruthless magic user or this friendly, geekly girl who was, currently, wearing a hot pink sweater so furry that looked like she'd scalped a stuffed animal.

Maybe both aspects were simply part of her soul, with no subterfuge involved.

Already anticipating Inuyasha's plans, Kagome stepped around behind him. She hopped up onto his back and he caught her legs in his hands with practiced ease -- like it hadn't been five centuries for him and three years for her. She looked over his shoulder at them, grinning in anticipation of their reaction. They were staring at her and Inuyasha with expressions of varying degrees of bafflement. Kagome laughed, "Inuyasha can't fly, but he can really move fast. Race you guys ..."

Inuyasha snorted and interrupted, "It wouldn't be much of a contest. We'll meet you in the parking lot of the Circle K at the intersection of Elm and Eucalyptus -- do you people know where that is?"

"I do," Willow said, sounding skeptical. "You really aren't planning on running ..."

Kagome felt Inuyasha's muscles bunch a heartbeat before he took two strides and leaped aloft in a soaring arc skyward. She clutched at his shoulders and tightened her grip with her legs around his waist; he caught his hands under her knees in a long familiar touch. The quiver full of arrows on her back rattled, and her long bow caught the wind and the strap over her shoulder tightened a bit.

He'd jumped far higher and faster than she remembered ... with a shock, she felt the power of his sword build where her leg brushed against it. She glanced down and saw the seemingly rusty old weapon was glowing gold in its sheath.

"Got an upgrade on Tessaiga, did you?" she murmured against the wind of his ersatz "flight" ... they were going higher and higher, city lights falling away below them. Her ears popped and she yawned to release the tension.

"Mmm. Centuries ago." He turned his head back to speak to her. "Still don't fly. Like to find a way to manage that someday."

"This is pretty close." She snuggled against his back, resting her chin on his shoulder and tightening her grip on his shoulders.

"Don't worry. I won't drop you. I'd have to face your grandfather if you did."

She chuckled a bit, then asked, "Do you remember much of him?"

"Hai. A little. You say something and it reminds me of something else and anyway ... How's Souta-kun and your mother and grandfather doing?"

He _was _remembering. She turned her grip on his shoulders into a hug from behind. He was hard bodied, powerful; not a trace of spare flesh anywhere on him-- she could feel the muscles in his arms and back clench and ripple under the rough fabric of his fire rat clothing as he shifted his weight, balancing against the wind to keep from tumbling end over end. Almost belatedly, she answered, "They're good. When this is all over we'll have to go home for a visit. They'll be really happy to see you."

"Keh."

"Umm. How do you travel if you have to go by air?" She wondered about that, suddenly. Leaping through the air like Mighty Mouse was fine for terrestrial travel over moderate distances, but it wouldn't get him across oceans. Could he get through airport security?

"With a hat." He paused, then added, "Haven't tried to fly since they instituted the new security measures, though. I hear nail clippers are now illegal. And I bet they'd worry about these. Catch 22 there, ne?" He let go of her leg again to wave his clawed hand in the air a foot from her face. "Sesshomaru refuses to tell me how me manages the flying trick. And Kirara's mute on the subject."

She laughed at that, wind whipping her giggles away behind them. "We'll think of something."

"Gloves." He shrugged, making her bounce a bit on his back. He sounded unconcerned. "Or we take Shippou along for the ride and convince the pup to put a glamour on me."

"I'm sure my mother would love to meet him anyway. And Souta would be thrilled. If I miss much more school they'll toss me out and I'll lose my scholarship ... which, by the way, is a _remarkably _familiar problem ... but maybe over the winter break?" Something he said made her back up a bit and ask, "Wait a second -- Kirara? Is she still alive?"

"Far as I know. She isn't exactly the world's greatest letter writer. Haven't run into her in over two centuries, but haven't heard she died, either."

"We'll have to try to find her!"

"Shippou has tried a few times without any luck. She turns up when she wants to be found. She's a cat. What else would you expect?" He shifted his weight as they reached the apex of the arc, and she felt him reach out for the ground as they drifted back down, legs extending forward. They weren't falling _nearly _as fast as gravity would have allowed -- when he touched down on the roof of a small residential house perhaps half a mile from where he'd shoved off earlier, it was lightly and with grace. He took a dozen running strides across the roof and leaped again.

"This is amazing!"

"Glad you're enjoying it, woman." He let go of one of her legs and coughed into his upper arm. She tightened her grip on his waist with her knees, though she was not really worried about falling. She'd done this with him long enough to know he could grab her quicker than she could lose her grip on him. He'd just never been able to jump so high or far before ...

"How are you doing?" She asked in concern, realizing that this sort of display of power had to be using quite a bit of energy. He didn't have unlimited stamina even when he was fully healthy.

"I'm fine, woman. Look, you can see the ocean ... see the boats?"

He'd soared so high that she could see the darker line of water against the horizon, with glittering city lights stretching out to the shoreline. As he'd said, she could see the lights of ocean-going vessels in the far distance.

Moments later, he touched down again, on a dark hillside street. The mountain was steep -- he ran up the road until it dead-ended, hopped somebody's back yard fence without breaking stride (though he left her stomach behind when he did it!), then soared off a cliff face and over a valley full of streetlights and houses. Far below, she could see cars moving, porch lights, very early Christmas lights, and a few swimming pools lit up in shimmering shades of blue. She had absolutely no idea where they were, and trusted that Inuyasha had a better sense of the city.

As if reading her mind, he said, "This was all wild country when I got here with Amelia in about 1840. I miss it. I never thought it would change the way it has."

He just sounded sad when he said that. And horribly resigned. He added, "Japan's worse. Too many fucking people." He glided across a six-lane highway, touched down on top of a grocery store, then leaped back into the moonlit sky.

"Yeah. I miss the past." Suddenly, the views of the city lights weren't quite so grand. Once, this country would all have been dark except for a few flickering campfires, and the moonlight would have lit wild, untamed hills.

"Me too," he admitted. "I don't belong to this world. Haven't for a long time. Part of me still lives in the past, when times were simpler and humans fewer ... I really miss it. But there are things I love about this human world ... music. Books. Art."

"You?" She said, with a little laugh.

He glanced over his shoulder at her, one amber eye visible and gleaming. "You doubt me?"

"I've seen your home," she pointed out. "You've got more books in your living room than some public libraries. I believe you. It just boggles the imagination."

"Mmm. They remind of times past ... and maybe times to come. But Amelia was always trying to get me to thin the collection of books. She would say they were a fire hazard. I think she didn't like the clutter, is more like it." He snorted his opinion of that with characteristic disgust. She could picture a running battle there -- had Amelia had a temper to match her hair, she wondered? Somehow, Inuyasha falling for someone meek and mild was even more improbable than Inuyasha-the-bookworm.

"I just can't picture you reading. You weren't exactly the scholarly type. Hell, you used to try to keep _me _from my classes -- you were rather jealous of my schoolwork, as I recall." She reached up and flicked his ear teasingly.

He ducked his head in irritation. "And I don't like even thinking about you slaying demons on your own, wench, so we're fucking even!"

She grinned. "You'll have to get used to it, dog-boy. It's my calling. Unless you want to tag along so I won't be alone ..."

"Lazy girl. You know how that will turn out." He landed on the top of a skyscraper and came to a halt. The city stretched out around them in all directions -- an endless sea of glittering lights.

"Yeah? How's that?" She dropped to the ground behind him. The view was amazing. She, too, would have preferred wild country over city ... but this was beautiful.

"Me doing all the work, you standing around like a damned little idiot." He was teasing her. He pitched his voice higher, "Inuyasha! Saaaaave me!"

She snorted an appreciative laugh. "Kagome! I'm not hurt! No, really! I'm fine!" She mocked right back at him. She reached up and ruffled his hair between his ears, making him pin them flat and duck his head. She continued, "'What? That blood? I didn't really need that blood.' -- I swear, Inuyasha, you could have been cut in two and you'd have called it 'just a scratch' ..."

He chuckled and walked with her on his back to edge of the roof. "Why are we stopping?" She asked, puzzled, when he didn't leap again.

"Cars are slow. It'll take 'em forty five minutes to get there. Me, maybe fifteen. Might as well take our time. Sesshomaru won't kill the Slayer until he doesn't need her any more." He planted his hands on the cement wall that encircled the roof top.

"Pretty up here," she observed, leaning on the wall next to him.

"Mmph."

His eyes had gone distant, lonely. _Thinking of her, _she thought. "Did you used to do this sort of thing with Amelia?"

"Yeah." He sighed. "Tessaiga ... reminds me of her. The sword would protect her, the same way it protects you. And she helped me master it, over the years."

She wondered if that was why he hadn't been carrying it -- painful memories. "I'm sorry. You know I'm sorry. I wish I could have known her."

"Not jealous?" He rested a clawed hand on her shoulder; she could feel the weight of his nails through her thin blouse.

"Not really," she answered, honestly. "If she was still alive I would be." She almost said, _I can't be jealous of the dead -- _and, luckily, thought that one through before saying it.

"You were always too self-sacrificing for your own good," he snorted. He turned around, hitched himself up onto the wall so that he was sitting on it with his back to a multi-story drop, and regarded her thoughtfully. "You'd have stayed with me in the past -- wouldn't you?"

"Probably."

"But you'd have missed your own time. Mourned for people who wouldn't be born for centuries." He reached a hand out and stroked her hair, then pressed his palm against her cheek. She leaned into the touch -- his hand was warm and she could smell the sharply metal tang of rusty iron on his fingers, from Tessaiga's hilt. Five hundred years had _not _helped the old blade's appearance much. He said, voice gone soft and somehow distant, "People would have grieved for you. Your mother, your brother."

"It wasn't like you to make a sacrifice like that," she shook her head. "I still can't believe you did. Inuyasha, you used to throw a jealous fit when I went home for a few days to see my family. I still have a hard time believing that you sent me away forever."

"I did it _because _I loved you." He coughed into his fist, then spat over the side of the wall. The other hand in her hair stilled and pulled away. He looked sideways out over the city, the bright glow of the city lights illuminating his face from below. His amber eyes glittered and one ear flicked back when a car alarm whooped on a street far below.

"I know. I knew you loved me. You left me wondering sometimes ... but in the end, I knew." She gave him a crooked smile.

"Hai." He sighed. He studied her with a level, unflinching, intense gaze for a long minute. She met his eyes -- there was a security light on a small structure on the roof behind her, and it cast just enough light that she could see the gleam of amber in that look. Finally, he blinked and mumbled, "I'm s-sorry I didn't recognize you at first."

"Yeah. I think I am a bit mad about that." She still, was, too. She'd get over it. But not if he kept reminding her about it. _Maybe it's best he _did _make that choice for me ... otherwise, I'd have had to choose between Inuyasha -- or Mama and Souta and Grandfather... _

He flattened his ears, ducked his head, and repeated, "I'm sorry! Damnit, woman, what do you want me to do, roll over like a cur dog and piddle all over myself?"

She snorted a laugh. "Would you if I asked?"

"No!" He straightened up and fixed her with an annoyed glare, eyes narrowing and arms folding.

"Just drop it, Inuyasha. It's water under the bridge. Forgetting what I looked like is far from the worst thing you've done to me." _That _got her a flinch from him, which wasn't actually what she'd been trying for. Her words had been a casual observation, not really meant to hurt him. She'd honestly forgiven him for lots of things over the years.

"Kagome, you know I'm a complete idiot at times."

"Yes. Amelia had to have been a saint to put up with you for that long." She teased him, since he probably would have _worried _if she hadn't.

"Go ahead, rub it in: the whole world knows Inuyasha no baka ... And I wouldn't want to marry a saint anyway. That would be _boring_. I'd die of the peace and quiet inside a year. Amelia and I had arguments that spanned _decades!_"

She grinned, easily envisioning that level of chronic bickering, given that Inuyasha was half of that equation. _And in truth, _she thought, _Inuyasha could probably provoke a saint to profanity._ His expression, however, didn't match her good humor -- he looked suddenly serious, sober. Worried. Abruptly, he changed the subject. "Kagome, I'm worried about this fight."

"You're obviously a lot more powerful than you used to be. How does Sesshomaru compare to you now?" In the past, they'd been so evenly matched that either could have won a serious fight with luck the biggest deciding factor -- though mostly, Inuyasha came out marginally (and sometimes more than marginally) ahead. For a hanyou, he'd always been extremely powerful, and she thought that his passion for protecting those he cared about gave him an edge on top of his formidable natural abilities. On at least one occasion, Sesshomaru had _only _survived a fight because of Tenseiga's protection.

"I ain't seen him in fifty years." Inuyasha sighed. "So I don't know what he's added to Tenseiga."

"He still has it?" Sesshomaru's magic sword was a fraternal twin to Inuyasha's -- Inuyasha's was a sword for killing demons, Sesshomaru's for healing mortals. Not that he _couldn't _use it to kill, but that wasn't what it was intended for ... the enchantments on those blades had certainly been a deliberate choice on their father's part.

"Hai."

"Figured he would." She frowned, thinking. "Have I ever told you that your father had a sick sense of humor?"

"Keh." Inuyasha didn't argue that point one bit. "But also, he was very wise."

She gave him a sideways look. He'd sounded almost fond of Inutaisho. "Finally figured that out, did you?"

"I'm seven centuries old. Give me some credit," he grumbled good-naturedly. Then he suddenly scooped her up, holding her tight to his chest. He kissed her on the cheek and said, "Let's get going. I might have to stop again on the way."

_Oh. _She realized belatedly that he was still not well -- just hiding it very well. That gave her a cold chill. _He'll be facing down Sesshomaru, _she realized, _And he's nowhere near the top of his form. _


	12. Chapter 12

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Chapter 12

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Author's Note: I now have the last chapter written, with a small chunk between here and there to go. I'm finally on the downhill end of things. (I don't write things in a linear fashion, but rather put stories together like pieces of a puzzle. About two "pieces" or story-beats are missing.) Expect this story to be completed in the next week or so.

There will be a sequel someday. With elves. Really. Unseelie, to be specific. Because I've always wanted to do really evil elves in the Buffyverse and because Celtic legends and Japanese legends have a few striking thematic similarities.

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Kagome's weight was comfortably nestled against his back. She was relaxed, trusting, enjoying the ride -- she'd always been adventurous, but he was still both surprised and relieved that she wasn't bothered by the heights he could leap to now.

Inuyasha only vaguely remembered carrying her this way before, with her thighs clasping his waist and her fingers clutching his shoulders ... but that distant memory was sparking a strong sense of deja vu now. He'd enjoyed this in the past, though he'd never let on just _how _much he'd liked carrying her. She'd probably have 'sat' him unconscious back then if he had.

She was a bit heavier now, with more muscles, more height and more curves -- she was no longer the skinny teenager, she'd grown up quite a bit. Running track in college (and fighting demons on the side) had given her a certain extra level of fitness. Underneath her jeans, she was _solid_, hard-muscled, athletic.

Inuyasha landed lightly in the gas station parking lot, which was mercifully empty -- the sight of a dog-eared man apparently flying (even though he wasn't, really) into the parking lot with a pretty girl on his back would have been enough to get the attention of even the most jaded Los Angelino. Of course, a grin that showed _lots _of teeth generally dissuaded anyone from bothering him when he was noticed, but someone might call the cops, and that would be a complication they didn't need.

"So how often did you crash while you were learning to use that new ability?" Kagome said, teasingly. She slid off his back.

"Crash? Me? I don't crash, woman!"

She laughed, "Often?"

"Very often," he admitted, with a rueful laugh. His lungs hurt when he laughed, but he was still so relieved that he was able to breath freely that he wasn't about to complain. "The demon I got the spell off of would hover in the air above a fight and shoot arrows. I've never mastered _hovering_. I think it's because I'm a hanyou."

He couldn't quite keep the bitterness out of his voice when he said that. It still hurt him, sometimes, to be half of each and all of neither world. Not human and not youkai, but a lonely blend of each, accepted by few, fitting in nowhere.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "It's still a remarkable ability."

Her arm slid down his back, then around his waist, and she leaned against him, burying her face in his haori. She smelled wonderful -- of clean soap, and strawberry scented shampoo, and fainter odors that he found pleasant -- laundry detergent, good food, the scent of books, and, of course, the scent of _him_. His own smell on her, from holding her, touching her, putting his arms around her ...

Impulsively, he did just that, wrapping her in a tight hug. Part of him still hurt terribly, but when he closed his eyes, there wasn't a great gaping lonely wound in his soul anymore. The scar was still there, but so was _she ... _like a light at the end of a very long tunnel. _Amelia forgive me, _he thought, _But I can't go on alone. I want this girl in my life. Will you forgive me? _

He honestly didn't know what Amelia would think, though he could easily picture her fiery temper. She had possessed a notable jealous streak. _Amelia, _Inuyasha thought,_. I _am _going to take what this wonderful, amazing woman is offering me. I only wish I knew what your opinion was. Would you approve of me moving on, or be horribly hurt and jealous that I love another?_

He truly didn't know -- he was never very good at guessing the motives of others. He had not discussed the matter with her and he had no clue what Amelia's opinion would be. After four and a half centuries of marriage, it had been very easy to assume that they would go on together for eternity That wasn't a mistake he would make for a second time. Every moment with Kagome was precious to him now. And he _knew -- _from hard and bitter experience with human friends who were young and then, seemingly overnight, old and grey and frail -- that the seemingly long lives of mortals could pass by in a twinkling.

He resolved every day would be precious -- doubly so, because he knew how dangerous Kagome's life was and that Slayers normally _didn't _live to be old and grey.

Kagome slid her hands up his chest, between them, and then draped her arms around his neck, distracting him instantly from his dark thoughts. Her eyes were sparkling in the moonlight, and she laced her fingers together behind his head and stretched up to kiss him. Her lips were firm against his, and her body melded close, and he felt himself responding to more than just the kiss. _Live in the now_, he told himself firmly. _Don't worry too much about the past or the future. _

"Enough," he pushed her back, very reluctantly, after several moments of enjoying the _now_ very much. Hurt flashed across her face, to his regret and he knew she thought he was rejecting him. She pulled away, arms folding, starting to stare at the ground. She was so young ... so very, very young still. And she was easily wounded, especially because she was so desperate for his approval and so worried he would push her away. He never wanted to hurt her.

"Kagome," he sighed, reaching out and pulling her back against him for a hug with less heat and more comfort in it. He couldn't bear to see that look of worried fear on her face. "Please, we can't do this before a fight. Later. I promise. I just don't want to be distracted."

"Oh." She stepped back and gave him a shy grin -- but it was a grin that said he'd somehow found exactly the right words to say. Ah ... he realized she was extremely inexperienced and perhaps not used to thinking of herself as _attractive_ ... she wasn't the type to flaunt what she had; sometimes he thought she wore her trademark short skirts because she _wasn't _aware of the effect they had on men. Almost timidly, but not embarrassed by it, she asked, "You'd really be distracted by me? Even later? If we ... right now ..."

"Hell yeah." _Inuyasha no baka_, he thought at himself, with chagrin, _You're her first lover. She's not used to thinking about herself as being tempting to a guy. Particularly a guy who she _wants _to tempt. So she's really insecure. _Even he, who was often baffled by people's motives, could figure _that _one out.

She grinned, suddenly, and met his eyes. "Guess I'll have to give you double the distraction _later_."

"Heh." She would, too, he figured. Why did he suspect her learning curve about just _how _to get him very distracted in a very big hurry was going to be _very _short?

She giggled. "Inuyasha ..."

"Later." He promised, cutting off whatever it was she was going to say -- he thought she was going to give him some profound declaration of love and, really, there was a fight coming. Seven hundred years of life had taught him _not _to go into a battle with his mind on other things. "We have things to talk about, you and I -- but _later_." He sighed, then, contemplating that fight. He was _worried. _"Kagome, promise me you'll let me deal with Sesshomaru. Stay out of the way."

She shook her head. "Things have changed, Inuyasha. I'm not sure I could have promised you that _then _and now ..."

"He could rip you in two," he snorted. "Don't be stupid."

"Ever wonder what would happen if I purified Sesshomaru?" Kagome wondered idly. "Want me to try?

"No!" He objected to that idea strongly. She could be hurt ... and ... he gritted his teeth and refused to even think about the other reason he didn't want her to try that. There was, actually, a decent chance she could pull it off, given her new speed and strength and accuracy. He hadn't really seen _her _fight, but having fought a number of Slayers, he had a good idea what she could (and couldn't) do.

They'd probably have to get Tenseiga away from Sesshomaru, but that could be accomplished somehow. Or she could hit the sword with a purifying arrow first, taking it out of the fight for long enough ... But he wasn't about to allow her to try it.

"What, you think I couldn't do it? I'm stronger now than ever before." She grinned, and he realized he was being baited. She patted his chest comfortingly. "Don't worry, I wouldn't do that unless I didn't have another choice."

She sighed and buried her face in his shirt again. "Inuyasha?"

"Yeah?" He said, wary but resigned. He was concerned she was going to insist on deep discussions right now.

"I may have said this before, but I'm so very glad I found you." She snuggled against him. He could smell her shampoo again, and the heat of her body through her clothes. Why had she chosen to wear a short skirt to a fight? Other than the practical reason of being able to move with speed and agility, of course.

"Mmm."

For awhile, they just stood in companionable silence. Then she said, quietly, "Inuyasha?"

"Yeah?" He gave her a sideways look, hearing a soft question in her voice.

"Tomorrow, when this is over ... what are we going to do? You and I?" she said, hesitantly.

"Sleep." He grunted, deliberately avoiding the subject. Anyway, it was most likely true. He was exhausted ... though he could breath now, he could hear the gunk in his lungs rattling around with every exhalation, and he felt like he could crawl into bed for a week without break. His ribs ached from coughing and when he pushed himself too hard (as he had been doing) he got dizzy. It was slowly getting better but he suspected he'd need a few solid days of rest to be a hundred percent.

"Besides that." She was oblivious to how bad he still felt physically, he hoped. She'd worry if she knew. She had to be aware that he wasn't 100 because he'd had to discretely stop a few times, but he didn't think he was even at fifty percent of his abilities. Sesshomaru would smell the sickness on him, too, as soon as they met.

"That's a discussion for later, Kagome. Not before a fight." He'd pour his heart out to her ... later ... not now. Not when both of them might end up in a frame of mind not suitable for a battle.

She sighed, clearly not liking his procrastinating. He hoped she wasn't going to get mad at him. On the other hand ... well, he could deal with Kagome pissed off at him a lot better than he could deal with thoughts of a naked Kagome in his bed, learning about sex and love in his arms and ... he gritted his teeth and thought about anything else. Taxes. The taxes were coming due on his property. Five figures of taxes. Bloody damned thieving county government ... every year, they raised his taxes, and the people who determined the taxes were some of the same people who wanted to buy his property for development ... taxes ... mmm, taxes ...

"Some things shouldn't go unsaid, Inuyasha." Her words pulled him away from his (fairly ineffective) attempt at distracting his hindbrain from the real possibility of sex with Kagome in the very near future and ... damn. Taxes. Taxes. TAXES.

"Don't," he warned, somewhat desperately ... didn't she know what she was doing to him? "Don't push this, Kagome. Please."

Anyway, hormones aside, he wasn't quite ready to talk to her about what he wanted to say. He needed a little more time to think things through.?

She sighed, finally giving up, and said, "What time is it? Shouldn't they be here by now?"

He unclipped his cell phone from the waist band of his hakama and flipped it open to check the time. She was right, if they'd driven straight here. They were fifteen minutes late, at least.

"Wonder if they got lost?" She glanced at the clock on his phone.

"More likely, they decided they didn't trust us at their backs in a fight." He snorted.

"They'll _die_!" Kagome exclaimed, alarmed by the idea.

"Feh. Like I care." Oddly, he _was _concerned, however. His head said the smartest thing to do was let Buffy's people go up against Sesshomaru ... they were _enemies_, and if his enemies wanted to engage in a suicidal fight with a daiyouki loard _after _he'd offered his help and they'd scorned it ... no sweat off his back, right? He could go home with the pretty girl in front of him and ... no, damnit. That was not actually an option.

"But you do care." She knew him too well. "And it will eat at you if you don't help. Don't you have enough on your conscience right now?"

He flinched at that. But she was right. He did, and it would bother him. "Fucking idiots."

"You or them?" Kagome inquired, sweetly.

"Everybody. Whole fucking world is fucking idiots." He grumbled. _And that choice of swear words is appropriate ... _he thought, given the state of certain parts of his anatomy that he hoped his hakama hid sufficiently to avoid embarrassing himself. "Let's go. If I'm going to get in a fight with Sesshomaru tonight, let's just get it over with."

"Do you know exactly where he is? That map didn't look like it was real specific," Kagome asked. "It wasn't very detailed about the location."

He nodded. "There's a cave in a hillside about half a mile from here. Amelia n' I cleared out a nest of purebred vampires oh, maybe a hundred years ago."

"Purebred vampires?" He heard the question in her voice.

"Dunno what else to call 'em." He let go of her and squinted off to the north. He remembered that fight -- they'd been far better fighters than the run-of-the-mill undead. He'd actually ended up with a few cuts and bruises after it.

He explained, "Most vamps are demons who've possessed human bodies after death. These were different -- older, purer, no trace of humanity to 'em. They were doing something nasty there, I dunno what. Sacrificing humans to raise power -- yadda yadda, you know the drill, Kagome. Whole place stank of raw evil."

"Amelia had a vision that we needed to stop them. So we did. Not really that big of a deal, or even that big of a fight. If there were _lots _of those creatures they might have been a problem, but there were only about twenty of them." He paused, "Wouldn't surprise me if they were back. Evil's been on the move in this city ever since that night three years ago when hell opened up downtown."

"I'll tell you about where _I _was that night some other day ... and you think Sesshomaru might be there, at the cave?" She asked.

"Mebbe." He paused. "Let's go find out." He paused again. "How many arrows do you have?"

"About twenty."

"We run into any of those purebred vamp thingies, you're gonna need 'em." He gave her a worried look. He wanted to tell her to stay out of the fight, but Kagome had never been good at that to begin with, and now, she was even less likely to stay on the sidelines. The best he could do to keep her safe was to fight at her side. But he didn't have to like it.

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Buffy frowned at the toad-thing. She was bored, and she wondered if the creature would talk to her -- she might find out something useful if he would. What was his name again? Sesshomaru had said it ... "So ... Jaken ... where's your master?"

"Lord Sesshomaru is hunting vampires. They did not like being evicted from their den and insist on returning despite great losses among their numbers." The toad demon was watching her with an unblinking stare. Given his appearance, she was a little surprised by the intelligence in his words. He looked like he shouldn't be capable of much more than 'ribbit' and 'kiss me, princess ...'

The creature asked, sounding curious, "Are you really a slayer?"

"Yeah."

"Never seen one before. Thankfully." The demon folded his arms. Skeptically, he said, "You don't look like much of a threat."

"Let me loose and I'll show you _threat_," Buffy muttered. She figured could drop kick him into orbit if her feet were free ... even _without _her powers. Or at least nail him hard enough that he bounced off the ceiling.

"Heh. She makes a funny." The demon rolled his eyes. Then, in an almost conversational tone of voice, he said, "Once upon a time, you know, I thought Lord Sesshomaru was going to be one of the most powerful demons on Earth. He's got it -- the strength -- to be an alpha dog. He's never lived up to that potential."

Buffy wasn't sure what his point was. She waited, wondering if he'd volunteer anything else.

Jaken's expression was a mixture of respect and actual affection for his master. "I still follow him, though. I am honored to do so; he has earned my allegiance. And he'd tear anyone who touched me limb from limb. Don't think he wouldn't."

_Oh_. So that was his point. Still, that begged an interesting question. "If he's that powerful, why isn't he ... alpha?"

The demon snorted. "He's that powerful and more -- but he lacks the desire."

"Lazy?" Buffy said, baiting him a bit.

"Hardly!" Jaken sounded offended at that suggestion. "Sesshomaru is a complex man. You might think twice before you try to slay him, though, Buffy." He pointed a small finger. "See that?"

She had to roll over and sit up to see what he was indicating. The ropes binding her hands and feet were rough and chafing and restrictive. When she saw what he pointed at, however, her stomach dropped into her toes. A goat's head seal inset into the marble floor ... she recognized it from Sunnydale. The same seal had kept the Hellmouth there closed.

"I see you recognize it."

"He's _opening a Hellmouth_?" Wait, a Hellmouth in LA? How come they'd never heard of it ...

The toad demon barked a laugh that held large amounts of cynical amusement. "Hardly. The vampires were trying to create one, however. A new one. Seems they lost their old one 'cause of a certain blond slayer and her friends."

"It looks old." She doubted his story; the metal of the seal had a patina of age on it.

"Hai. It is." Jaken walked over to the seal and frowned down at it. "It's been here about a century but it's never been activated. This was constructed generations ago, but Inuyasha and Amelia took out a whole nest of demons before they could create it. The doorway here has lain forgotten for decades until you shut down the Hellmouth in Sunnydale and started working on the one in Cleveland and the demons reacted by looking for an alternative, a new Hellmouth ... and somebody remembered this."

"I don't understand how Sesshomaru figures in to this." Buffy asked, amazed that she was getting this much information out of the creature. He seemed quite willing to talk to her -- and more than intelligent enough to hold up his end of the conversation.

"Sesshomaru doesn't get along with other demons much. He'd really prefer that a Hellmouth not be opened ... and he _hates _vampires. They stink of carrion and they have no honor." Jaken apparently didn't like vampires much either, by his expression. "Buffy, I'm telling you this because I'm aware of your history. My lord discounts you as a threat to him. I don't. Sesshomaru is trying to find a way to remove this seal. _That _was why he was here in LA. Your little feud with Inuyasha is just an annoying distraction."

In the distance, steel rang on steel. Jaken stiffened, and tilted his head, clearly listening.

"Trouble?" Buffy inquired sweetly. That would be the Scoobies, coming to the rescue. And Spike, probably.

A snarl ripped through the still air of the cave. That didn't sound like Spike or anyone else among her friends.

"Bloody hell! Turok-han!"

Okay, _that _sounded like Spike. _And _trouble. All rolled into one three-word declaration.

"SPIKE!" Buffy shouted. "In here!" She could hear him through the doorway -- beyond it, she could see a much larger room.

"Buffy!" Spike shouted back. There was relief in his voice. "Be there in a minute, luv! Got a problem ... here ..."

Buffy said a very rude word. "Jaken. Untie me and I promise I won't slay you unless you give me a reason to."

The toad demon hesitated.

"Look, if there's a Turok-han around my friends are in trouble. Do you really want to fight an ubervamp on your own if they can't stop it? You'll be squished. God only knows where your master is; he could be dead, for all we know."

_That _decided him, though he snapped, "Not dead. Not from little vampires." With a muttered imprecation about _vampires _under his breath, the little demon scrambled around behind her and began to pick at bindings on her wrists with clammy clawed fingers. "Sesshomaru is going to kill me ..." The demon worried, in a tone of voice that told Buffy he was more concerned about _anger _from his lord than actual bodily harm. "He said not to let you go!"

Spike appeared suddenly in the doorway. Buffy exhaled a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, and exclaimed, "_Took _you long enough!"

"Yeah, yeah, happy to see you, took, luv ... oy, what's this?" He'd spotted Jaken, who was cowering behind Buffy's back.

"Oh, don't kill him." Buffy rolled her eyes. "I think he's pretty harmless and he was going to let me go."

Spike gave Jaken a dubious look, but crouched down behind her and cut through the bindings on her ankles with a pocket knife. "You okay?"

"Okay, but my powers ..."

"Are gone, I know. Chibi says they'll come back eventually." She was relieved by the impatient way he said that -- he'd found out about that, somehow. Had they caught up with Kagome? She hoped they had, and that the other Slayer was regretting her actions now.

Spike cut the rope around her feet and offered her a hand up. "There's a fucking lot of Turok-han around here, Buffy. I can smell 'em. Somebody's killed a bunch of them, too."

"That would probably be Sesshomaru." Buffy stretched, back popping. "Let's get out of here. Jaken, you might tell your lord that it'd be very smart if he stayed out of Slayer business ..."

"I thought I smelled something vile ..." Sesshomaru appeared through a narrow doorway behind Buffy. "A carrion stink of the grave."

"Pleased to meet you too," Spike grinned. That grin made Buffy's eyebrows rise; Sesshomaru wouldn't be able to read Spike, but she knew him well enough to know he was up to something. Where _were _the rest of the Scoobies? Was Spike acting on his own? No, she'd heard steel-on-steel fighting. Spike wasn't armed with anything but his fists and his wits. "You'd be the big boss, I take it, behind the ubervamps. I was looking for a fight ..."

"Spike, I don't think he's ..." Buffy didn't have time to warn Spike, because Sesshomaru contemptuously drew his sword. It was a rather ... large ... sword.

"Funny thing. Tenseiga's meant to be a sword of healing, but it kills vampires and other things which are of the undead." Sesshomaru's words were dismissive. He slashed at Spike.

"Nice big knife. Compensating for something that's little, are we now?" Spike jumped over the arc of the sword. "Buffy! Get out of here!"

His split-second glance in Buffy's direction was all it took -- Sesshomaru, far more agile than the heavy weight of that blade should have allowed, flicked it around backwards and drive the hilt of the sword at Spike's head as Spike was landing from his leap. Spike started to duck, but Sesshomaru was able to aim downwards and his fist, with all the weight of the weapon behind it, smashed into Spike's temple.

The noise that blow made was a terrible _crunch_. Spike went down in a boneless heap, eyes rolling back in his head. Buffy swore again..

"Stupid creatures, vampires. Never met one yet that knew how to fight." Sesshomaru regarded her with a flat level expression that was too mild to be a glare, but quite unfriendly.

Spike twitched, groaned.

Buffy figured he was out of commission for several minutes at least -- that had been one heck of a blow. She was in no shape to keep Sesshomaru busy by fighting him ... she made a split second decision to lead him _away _from Spike until the vampire could recover enough to engage Sesshomaru again.

"Somebody needs a muzzle," Buffy said, with a baiting grin. "Or maybe some obedience training. Because you're a baaaaad puppy."

His eyes narrowed. He put the sword away with a contemptuous motion. "You'll regret those words, little girl."

Buffy grinned. She dredged an insult up from years of half-listening to Andrew wax poetic on his favorite cartoons. "Bite me, bishi-boy."

His eyes glinted with anger at her taunting and he charged for her, clawed hand reaching out to rend and tear. Green vapor swirled from his fingers, acrid and choking when she got a whiff of it. Buffy dodged and bolted for the doorway. As she ran, she realized he was far faster than she was -- something she hadn't counted on. She was used to Slayer speed, not normal mortal-girl legs ...

Still, she made it through the doorway a couple of strides ahead of him, stepping over a bit of rope on the ground. There was a motion out of the corner of her eyes ... she skidded to a halt and spun around in time to see _where _the Scoobies had been. She'd seen the rope but the significance hadn't occurred to her -- or, apparently, to Sesshomaru.

Andrew and Xander held either end of the rope. They yanked it taught with perfect timing. Lord Sesshomaru tripped over it and went down hard -- which probably wouldn't have slowed him down much, except that Faith had a whopping big axe in her hands and was standing next to Xander. She leaped forward and buried the axe up to the handle in his back, just below the shoulder. Vile-smelling blood and green vapors sprayed from the wound. Sesshomaru shrieked in surprise and anger and pain.

She'd probably been _aiming _for his neck, Buffy thought, and had missed because the youkai lord was trying to scramble back to his feet.

"Buffy!" Giles said, giving her a startled look, obviously having expected Spike to come through the doorway with Sesshomaru in pursuit, and not Buffy. Apparently, Spike had known Sesshomaru was coming from the other direction -- he'd either smelled him, or had anticipated his move. Or Faith or Willow had sensed him; by all accounts Sesshomaru was a hell of a powerful demon and ought to have one wicked demonic aura.

Buffy noted that Willow had an amulet in one hand. She held it high and started to chant something that sounded like a spell of binding -- Buffy wasn't any expert, but it sounded similar (but not identical) to the whammy that she'd hit Inuyasha with days before. This spell was one that meant some serious business; the amount of magic that Willow was summoning made the hair on the back of Buffy's neck raise.

"Not fast enough, pathetic little witch ..." Sesshomaru rolled to his feet, axe still sticking out of his back. There was a sudden rippling motion and where the pretty-boy lord had once stood there was now a dog. A _large _dog. A rather _enormous _dog -- a three-legged demonic Akita the size of an elephant -- and with very big teeth.

"Oh, shit." Andrew said, very clearly. Against that bulk, the axe wound was no more significant than a toothpick.

The dog growled.

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	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

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"Hey Fluffy! Over here!"

Inuyasha heard Buffy's voice before they rounded a corner in a narrow natural passage. The cave opened up into a large artificiall chamber. It was lit by electric lights in the ceiling and had been carved out of the rock with skill and artistry -- great pillars supported the weight of the roof, but there was ample space to amass an army of hundreds here.

The floor was white marble, inset with swirling lines of darker stone that might have been decorative or might have been evil. He wasn't sure.

Water dripped somewhere, he could smell it and hear it but he couldn't see it.

And in the middle of the chamber, the Slayers and their friends were taking on his brother. All of them were there, though the vampire looked like he'd gotten hit in the head with a sledgehammer -- half his face was black and blue.

They were doing better than he would have expected. Sesshomaru was bleeding in several places. He looked _pissed_, which took some doing -- Sesshomaru wasn't exactly a hothead. On the other hand, the axe in his shoulder probably wasn't helping his disposition any, and he knew from personal experience that Buffy's mouth could have enraged a saint. And her friends were almost as skilled with the cutting words.

Kagome said in a tone of calm observation, "Buffy's powers are coming back."

"Not quick enough, though ..." Inuyasha broke into a run across the room as he saw Sesshomaru whip around on Buffy, mouth open, teeth bared. He'd rip her to pieces if he got ahold of her.

"Sesshomaru!" He shouted, hoping to distract his brother long enough for Buffy to dodge.

Unfortunately, Sesshomaru didn't react -- but Buffy did. She glanced over her shoulder while running from Sesshomaru's jaws, tripped, and went down.

"Fuck." He leaped over her, drew Tessaiga in one smooth gesture, and landed between her and Sesshomaru with his sword drawn. Sesshomaru skidded to a halt, then swapped ends when Faith slashed at his hamstrings with a sword.

He heard Buffy scrambling back to her feet behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure she wasn't going to attack him and said, "Get out of here. You're not back to normal yet. I'll deal with my brother."

"Inuyasha ..." she breathed, seemingly stunned to see him here.

"Get!" He barked the command at her, then returned his full attention to Sesshomaru. Someone was going to get hurt or get dead if he didn't put a stop to this battle _now_. The mortals were attacking Sesshomaru like cave men going after a mammoth, and Sesshomaru was starting to get visibly frustrated. This was not a good combination.

"Get BACK!" He shouted at them.

They ignored him.

Kagome's voice, behind him, "Get away! Inuyasha needs room to fight him!"

Still no response. Damnit, he needed room to use his more effective attacks.

He slapped Tessaiga into the ground, not nearly as hard as he could. The resulting ripple of power left a deep gouge in the floor and and got everyone's attention, including Sesshomaru's -- who abruptly transformed back from the dog. Icily, he asked, "You want to fight me, whelp?"

"Everyone out of the way!" Inuyasha yelled again, at the humans. This time, having been clued in to his intentions by the destruction of the floor, they scattered -- Buffy ended up by a door leading to a side room with Kagome, and the rest ran the other way, clustering together near the exit.

He concentrated, identified the lines of demonic power radiating from Sesshomaru, and pulled Tessaiga back to cut along them. Sesshomaru charged towards him, claws reaching out.

Someone among Buffy's friends -- he thought it might have been Xander -- said, "Anybody bring popcorn? This should be entertaining."

He ignored them, except to note that they weren't nearly as frightened as they ought to be. What sort of life had these people been _living_?

A Wind Scar attack on Sesshomaru wasn't likely to kill him as long as he had Tenseiga, but it would put an end to this fight ... and he really didn't want to prolong it. Nor did he, particularly, want to kill Sesshomaru. At least, not today. He was keeping that option open for the future.

"Turok-han!" Buffy shouted, suddenly, alarm in her voice, "Look out!"

The vampire dropped from t between the two of them, from a vantage point above them, just as he unleashed a blast of power on Sesshomaru. The vampire got the brunt of the attack, and a blow from Tenseiga at the same time, and poofed into dust. More of them poured down from above, however, from a ledge fifty feet over their heads.

He and Sesshomaru exchanged a _look_. A few turok-han weren't much of a challenge to either of them. There were _lots _of them, however. Dozens. No, scores. Enough that mutual defense might be prudent.

"Kagome!" He shouted, "Stay with me!"

Hundreds of turok-han.

He unleashed a Wind-scar blast on a group of them, disintegrating them. His chest burned with the effort of summoning that much energy through the sword, however; he was painfully reminded that he'd been near death only a day before. _Damnit_, he thought, savagely.

An arrow hissed past his head and buried itself in the chest of an ax-wielding ubervamp a few feet from his back. He spun around in time to see it explode into oblivion, and Kagome running to him behind the path of the arrow. Purifying arrows made _short _work of vampires, even supercharged mutant nasty vampires like these apparently were.

He could hear the others engaging in a battle behind him. Sesshomaru, wisely, dropped into a line beside him. "So we fight together again, little brother," Sesshomaru said, sounding amused.

"You're bleeding. I can smell it."

"Clever little monkeys," Sesshomaru snorted. "It is nothing."

"They actually managed to wound you. I'm impressed," Inuyasha shot back.

"You stink of illness." His brother snapped. "I can't kill you today, it would not be an honest fight."

"Excuses, excuses ..." Inuyasha found a clean line of sight on at least thirty Turok-han, and sent a roaring burst of energy their way. The cavern rocked with the aftershocks, and gravel rained down from overhead.

"Careful, dog-boy. Don't bring this cave down on our heads." Kagome stepped stepped into line next to Sesshomaru -- Inuyasha didn't think it was _chance _that led her to stand on Sesshomaru's armless side. She was protecting Sesshomaru's vulnerable side, a tactically smart thing to do when the enemy of your enemies had just become your ally ... but it also meant he couldn't defend _her_.

For his part, the daiyoukai lord gave Kagome a _very _startled look, apparently only belatedly recognizing her. Inuyasha tried to remember if he'd ever told Sesshomaru _where_, or rather _when_, Kagome was from, and couldn't remember if he had. It wasn't like they'd ever sat down over coffee to have a nice brotherly chat about their lives and loves. Did Sesshomaru even know about the well? It had been so long, and his memories were so faded ...

Sesshomaru bit out, "_You_. The little miko!"

She tossed a grin over her shoulder at him. "Hello, Sesshomaru. Miss me?"

"Hardly."

"Gee, I feel so loved." Kagome sent two arrows towards Buffy, who was grappling with one Turok-han and being menaced by another. Both ubervamps went _poof_. Buffy snagged a dropped axe up off the ground, spun, and took the head off a third one.

Buffy's powers were coming back -- though she was still far slower than she ought to have been.

Buffy was pinned down in the doorway leading to the side room. The rest of her friends were being beaten back towards the exit. He, Sesshomaru, and Kagome were being forced towards Buffy by wave after wave of Turok-han. In theory, Tessaiga could take out a hundred demons with a swing ... in reality, they were underground with a roof that could collapse on their heads, he was trying not to hit the good guys, and he was nowhere near full strength.

The lights went out, plunging the cave into darkness.

"FUCK!" That was Xander.

A blow smashed into his shoulder, savage pain ... he'd been hit by something sharp and heavy. He smelled the vile stink of vampire, and a heavy body crashed into him. The vampire dodged away, and slashed out with his claws, missed entirely, then he heard a howl of pain from the darkness that was no vampire. He smelled the blood, and his heart twisted into a horrified knot.

"Kagome!" Somehow, she'd been injured.

"Inu ... inuyasha ..."

There was a glow from Tessaiga. His eyes adjusted, and he saw and smelled blood ... too much blood ...

"Not your fault ..." she murmured, at his feet. "Save the others, koishii ... glad we had ..."

She trailed off, and he yanked his sword arm back and funneled all his horrified rage at the army of ubervamps. A hundred dead? No, more than that ... the blast shook the cave, and then there was a crack and a roar of falling rocks that brought him back to himself.

"Idiot!" Sesshomaru snarled at him, bolting for the exit.

Inuyasha grabbed Kagome up, her blood hot on his hands. Rocks came down between him and the passage to the outside, however. He bolted for the other door as the ceiling gave way above them. Buffy was two steps ahead of them; they made it through the doorway just as the vast chamber filled with rock and debris.

------------------

It was dark, in the side room, without electric lights.

Buffy coughed on gagging amounts of dust and fumbled her cell phone out of her pocket. She used the lighted display as a flashlight, and found Inuyasha ... the hanyou's red clothing was transmuted to black by the green light of the phone, and there was more black on his hands, his face. His eyes were terrible pools of inky darkness ... in better light, she knew they would have been red, as they had been when he'd killed Kennedy.

"Is she ..."

No words, just a snarl.

Inuyasha spun away from her.

"Inuyasha ... "

"Stay away from me." A warning, delivered in a harsh choking voice.

He stumbled to a clear patch of floor and set the bleeding young Slayer down on it. Only belatedly did Buffy see the seal on the floor. She swore in horror. "Wait! Not there ..."

Too late. The heart's blood pouring from the woman's body covered the goat's head seal. There was a sudden flare of light. The seal abruptly came to life, and the very air trembled and seemed to fold around itself.

"No ..." Kagome murmured, perhaps sensing the evil below her. Stronger, she said, "NO!"

_Light _flared from her. Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her and light flared from _him_, too. A maelstrom of heat and energy rose from the pair of them, a tornadic swirl of power fighting the creation of a new Hellmouth. Buffy could only stand and stare in horror and awe.

"This will not be!" Kagome screamed. Yeah, she sensed the evil all right ...

For ten minutes, the power raged. Dark tendrils of purple and black swirled among the light blue and white that was the combined energy of miko and hanyou. Gradually, they drove back the darkness ... Inuyasha's snarls filled the air, and Kagome's whimpers grew softer and softer. Finally, with a _pop _of power, the maelstrom disappeared.

She snapped her cel phone open again. The goat's head seal on the floor was utterly gone.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha held her in his lap, and shook her shoulders gently. "No, Kagome. No, no ..."

Buffy cautiously drew closer. The front of the girl's shirt was soaked with blood. She wasn't breathing, and wasn't bleeding anymore.

"No!" He laid her on the floor, pressed his lips to hers in a parody of a passionate kiss. Between breaths, he gasped, "No! Kagome, no!"

He pressed on her chest, hard -- she heard rips cracking. He actually _knew _how to do CPR, she realized; some distant part of her brain wondered how he'd learned. It was a logical skill for a warrior to know, but she'd never thought of him being that smart. Or that caring. Or capable of that sort of planning.

"Kagome!" A desperate wail. "Kagome, no!"

Wordlessly, then, but with desperate intensity, he worked over her -- he kept trying to bring her back for what felt like hours. Buffy's cel phone beeped a low-battery warning and she snapped it shut, not wanting to watch anymore. This was utterly futile.

And still he continued to try against all logic and hope to save her life. Buffy knew, by the volume of blood that covered the floor, that Kagome was gone and he was trying to save a dead body ... but she didn't have the heart to tell him that.

Finally, after what felt like hours, the sounds of his rhythmic breathing and the slapping and cracking noises of his hands on her chest stopped. The wail now, instead of desperate, was simply and utterly broken. "Kagome, oh Kagome, no ..."

Buffy opened her cell phone again. Now he was shrugging out of his red jacket, and wrapping it around the body. His touch was tender, but the expression on his face was terribly, terribly lost.

"I'm sorry." She was, she realized -- he'd _loved _this woman, and he'd lost her without warning. She'd died in heroically slayerish fashion, however ... taking out that seal had been a truly incredible feat of power. Jaken had alluded to Sesshomaru having difficulty with it.

"What do you care?" Bitter words. "You didn't _know _her."

"I wish I had," Buffy said, honestly.

He gathered the body up in his arms and retreated with it across the room, as far from her as he could get. There he sat, Kagome's corpse in his lap, head bowed, silver hair falling around her. Buffy thought he was crying, but she couldn't be sure. His breathing was harsh, ragged, and he was visibly shaking. His facial features looked weird, and his eyes flashed dark as she watched, then faded back to normal. "No ... no, I _won't ... _" he murmured. "I won't hurt anyone else!"

She shut the phone off. She could feel a draft and remembered there was another exit out of here -- but wandering around in the dark with only a dying cell phone for light seemed really stupid.

"My instincts are still telling me to kill you, you know," the hanyou spoke after perhaps half an hour of silence. He sounded shaken. "I will _not _transform and lose myself again."

"Is there anything I can do ...?" She asked, carefully. He could kill her, if he wanted to.

"I'm done." Inuyasha said, sounding more exhausted than anything else. "I'm _done_, Buffy. I've nothing left to fight for. Kagome was it. Without her ... I'm not sure I would even fight for myself."

He exhaled a shaky, ragged breath. "What point is living if there's no joy in the world anymore? I don't _want _to go on."

"The world needs heroes," Buffy sighed. "Sometimes you have to go on even if you don't want to."

"What, are you going to invite me to join your merry little band of misfits? Like _that's _going to work." Angry words. "This is _your fault_, woman."

"It's both our faults. There's a whole spiderweb of lines of fault. And I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't bring people back. Sorry is useless. Pointless. You're only saying it because it makes _you _feel better," he bit out at her with anger and grief.

She didn't know what to say, so she sat silently with the light off, listening to him breath.

After a moment, he said, "This woman ... she healed my soul, Buffy. I was hurting so bad the first time we met ... she taught me to trust, to care for others, to laugh and to live and to share what's in my heart. She taught me to _love_, and that if you loved someone, you cared more about them than your own welfare."

A shuddering sigh. He _was _crying.

"I've never understood why ... why _me _... of all people. There was this boy, you know, who was always chasing after her. He was kind and caring and handsome. Gentle. Educated. He didn't have a vicious or mean bone in his body. He was from her time. And he _loved _her. And I was so threatened by him ... I figured she'd surely chose that perfect boy over me. I was an asshole, sometimes, to her. To this day, I don't understand ... I've never understood ..."

He trailed off, and held the broken body in his arms closer.

"Inuyasha, there's a place, after ..." Buffy swallowed a lump in her throat. "Mourn for yourself. But don't mourn for her. She's gone to a better place. It's real. I've ... known ... it."

"Feh. Shut up."

She flicked the light over him again, briefly, knowing the phone was almost out of juice. He was leaning against the wall, Kagome's head in his lap. He had his head rolled back, was staring upwards, and his expression was terrible to behold. Tears tracks glinted in the dim light. She saw his adam's apple bob.

When a flashlight shone across them, from the other exit, she was blinded by the sudden appearance of light where there had been none. A voice said, simply, "Inuyasha."

It was Sesshomaru. He gave Buffy a brief glance, then walked across the floor to regard the hanyou with a small frown. Inuyasha didn't even get up, he just sat there staring up at him. "Kill me, Sesshomaru. It's over. I'm done."

The daiyouki lord was very still and silent. He regarded Inuyasha with an almost curious expression for several minutes. When he spoke, his voice shattered a quiet so profound that Buffy jumped. "True evil's on the move in the world, Inuyasha. I haven't time to spare for this petty fight between us. I can't let them kill you and I can't let you do this to yourself."

"She's dead." Inuyasha said, without moving. His voice was simply broken. He sounded breathless, almost choking, when he whispered, "I ... I can't."

Buffy was expecting Sesshomaru to say something like, 'She was just a human' or 'pathetic' or half a dozen other insults. Instead, the demon lord said in a tone of voice that held _command,_. "Inuyasha, put her down and get up."

Inuyasha growled. By Sesshomaru's light, Buffy could see his eyes flash over to red and his facial bones lengthen. "If you won't kill me, just leave me alone!"

"Get. Up." Sesshomaru bent over, set the flashlight on the ground so that it was still pointing towards Inuyasha, and drew his sword.

"You gonna send me to the afterlife, then?" Inuyasha didn't move. He sounded almost ... expectant.

"You are an idiot, Inuyasha," Sesshomaru slashed at something in thin air. Buffy blinked. What was he doing -- practicing katas, _now? _He seemed suddenly to be fighting something invisible. He slashed and spun about and jabbed and cut at unseen victims.

Inuyasha suddenly scrambled to his feet, Kagome clutched to his chest, with his mouth hanging open. Sesshomaru continued to chase things that Buffy couldn't see -- he pursued one halfway across the room. In a tone of dumbstruck awe, and terrible hope, and utter disbelief, he said, "Sesshomaru ... you're ... _Kagome_ ... why?"

Sesshomaru made a noise that _might _have been a snort, though it was far colder than anything that Inuyasha had ever uttered. "This only works once, little brother. You best take better care of your woman in the future."

Kagome made a _noise _-- a deep, gasping sound. Inuyasha exhaled a tiny shuddering breath in reaction -- barely a sob, but a sound that held all sorts of incredible relief.

Sesshomaru put the sword away. "Bah. You look like a woman now. Crying like a girl. Typical."

"T..." The words seemed frozen in Inuyasha's mouth. He tried again, after a quick glance at the now-breathing woman in his arms. "Thank ..."

"Don't say it. You'll embarrass both of us." Sesshomaru said, sounding unhappy and uncomfortable with the whole situation. He paused, then added quietly, "There's trouble bigger than either of us coming, Inuyasha. That was why I came to save you from these fools. I see you've managed to save yourself, but still, heed this as a warning -- we cannot keep fighting as we have in the past. I may not be the bastion of light and goodness that you are," he said this with a almost, but not quite, a sneer, "but I have no desire to see this world consumed by foul evil."

After he led them to the surface, Sesshomaru paused, and added to Buffy with a very cold tone, "Touch my brother again and I _will _end you. His fate is _mine _to decide, and mine alone."

And then he was gone in a simple twinkling of light.

-------------------------


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

---------------------

He'd come so very close to losing her.

No. That wasn't right.

Inuyasha sat on the roof of the apartment building over Kagome's bedroom and stared out at the dawn sky. He remembered the utter horrific grief of her body growing cold and still in his arms. The desperation of realizing he was alone again ... that the promise of a future with her had been shattered before he'd even had a chance. That he wouldn't even get _one more day_ with her ...

He swallowed hard. He'd start crying again, and he hated tears. Useless. Pointless. What good were they?

He'd cried in front of Sesshomaru. He remembered that with angry resentment. His older brother had to think him a complete idiot. He'd been unable to protect Kagome, and then he'd bawled like a girl when there wasn't anything left to do but bury her.

But ... and the resentment didn't fade ... but Sesshomaru had _brought her back. _He'd used Tenseiga to restore Kagome to life, something so improbable that Inuyasha hadn't even thought to ask for it. Though if the thought _had _occurred to him, he'd have done anything -- begged, died, even willingly taken Jaken's place as Sesshomaru's footman -- if Sesshomaru would do it.

She was _back_.

And now she was sleeping soundly, below, in her own bed. By the time he'd carried her home she'd been conscious and coherent, though obviously exhausted. He'd helped her shower the blood off and then put her to bed and even thrown her bloodstained clothing in the washing machine in the complex's laundromat. Her shirt and skirt had been dark material; perhaps they would be salvageable. He could hear them now, thumping around inside the dryer along with his haori and hakama -- he'd judged his blood-stained white t-shirt a complete and total loss and had thrown it into her kitchen trash before cleaning himself up.

She'd been sound asleep before he'd emerged from the shower. And he himself was utterly exhausted, but he was also too keyed up to even think of sleep yet.

Inuyasha rested his hands on his jeans-clad knees and stared out at the city. He hadn't come _close _to losing her. He _had _lost her.

And Sesshomaru, damn him, had brought her back. That it was Sesshomaru who was the hero of the day rankled. But really, if not for Sesshomaru's interference, Willow never would have turned him human. And if not for Sesshomaru, he would be mourning Kagome, not contemplating a future with her.

"Inuyasha," Shippou's voice made him turn briefly. The man was in his natural form, red-haired and bushy-tailed. He picked his way across the roof, dawn sunlight turning that fiery hair gold. "Why didn't you call me?" The kitsune sat down, crosslegged, on the roof tiles beside Inuyasha. He added, when Inuyasha didn't immediately respond, "You know I'd have fought with you."

"I didn't think it was going to be that bad of a fight," Inuyasha said, finally. It was an excuse, and not really a very good one. "I wasn't counting on the Turok-han."

"Spike swung by my place earlier. He told me what happened." Shippou frowned at him, giving him a dark sideways glance.

He was probably offended that Inuyasha had not invited him to the battle, but Inuyasha resolved to _let _him be upset. The less his closest youkai friend and almost-son had to do with the Slayers, the better, because they _killed _people like Shippou. When no apology was forthcoming from Inuyasha, Shippou gave him another dirty look and changed the subject. "He told me about Kagome. Why do you think your brother brought her back?"

"He said there's trouble brewing. I guess he wanted me in the fight in a better frame of mind than I would be if I was dealing with ..." Inuyasha trailed off, then gave Shippou a crooked grin. "He finally admits I can kick ass in a battle."

"Oh, he's known that for a long time. He's been on the receiving end of an ass kicking from you too many times to think anything else!" Shippou snorted. He ran a hand through over his red hair and said, a bit teasingly, "He just likes to goad you, what with the 'incompetent idiot' type statements. You're _such _an easy target."

"Hey! What's that suppose to mean?" Inuyasha snapped.

"I rest my case, dog-boy," Shippou laughed easily.

"Feh!" Inuyasha folded his arms and glared out over at the sunrise.

"You know, sometimes I wonder about your brother. He seems so cold, so impersonal ... but then there was Rin," Shippou said, thoughtfully.

"Rin," Inuyasha echoed, remembering the girl who'd grown old and grey and died of age over four centuries ago. She'd been Sesshomaru's loyal retainer for her entire life. And he'd never quite understood what they saw in each other -- it had seemed wildly out of character for Sesshomaru to rescue a little mortal child, and she had been so unswervingly faithful to him over the decades. If he'd been abusive or cruel, Rin would never have loved him the way she had.

Shippou continued, "And Jaken's no fool. He'd have quit Sesshomaru a long time ago if he didn't have reason to stay loyal. Guy's been tagging after Sesshomaru for five centuries now ... And I think he genuinely _likes _your brother. So sometimes I wonder if Sesshomaru doesn't have another side that the two of us have never seen." Shippou rested his forearms on his knees and stared out over the smoggy city skyline for a long moment. He mused, "He can't appear weak; he has far too many enemies. He can't ever let his guard down. He has no friends that I know of, other than Jaken. It's got to be a hard, lonely life for him."

"Feh. You want me to go make nice with him or something?"

Shippou's grin bared altogether too many teeth, some of them quite sharp. "Not really. I'd probably piss him off and get killed within five minutes of trying to be nice to him. Which, incidentally, reminds me -- if he'd really wanted Buffy's people dead, they'd have been blood smears on the ground within thirty seconds of engaging with him. He was toying with them, but I'm not sure why."

"Heh. Yes. You realized that too?" Inuyasha said, with amusement. "I don't think the Scoobies realized what they were messing with. Or that he was messing with them right back."

Shippou studied Inuyasha, until Inuyasha demanded, "What are you looking at?"

"So, Kagome." Shippou smiled. "You and her, hm?"

"She ... we ..." he stammered, wondering if he should even be telling the kitsune about him and her and things that would make a very worldly fox demon go _hmm_ -- but he was wearing the same jeans he'd worn to the movies a few nights before, and he hadn't washed them since Kagome had gotten him _out _of them. The kitsune had to smell the obvious hormones on the fabric even if they were still clean by guy-standards.

"You had sex with her," Shippou said, dryly, and with a pointed sniff.

"Yeah." Inuyasha blushed to his toes.

Shippou shook his head, making his red ponytail bounce. "One wouldn't know that you're a seven hundred year old half-demon. _Demon_."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Inuyasha said, sounding annoyed and wary.

"You're as red as your haori. You blush like a little boy."

"Hey!" Inuyasha protested. "Give me a break. It's _Kagome_. Ka-go-me. She has this most amazing ability to make me _forget _I'm seven hundred years old. I feel like a kid again, with his first romance. Amelia _has _to be laughing her ass off at me, if she's not plotting cruel and unusual curses from the afterlife!"

"Nah, I wouldn't worry about Amelia being mad about this. Amelia's glad you're happy again. She'd want you to move on, Inuyasha. And -- I tell you, Inuyasha, I was never happier than the day Kagome walked into that bar and 'sat' your sorry ass ... you _needed _that. You needed _her _in your life again."

Shippou sighed, and lay back on the tile roof, fingers lacing behind his head. "Inuyasha, why are you out here on the roof instead of in there, with her?" The younger youkai sniffed again, pointedly. "You're ready to drop from exhaustion and you don't smell like you've fully recovered from that crud you had."

"Needed to think a bit." Inuyasha shrugged, dismissively. "Kagome's so deep asleep she don't know I'm not there."

"Mph. Worrying about the future, are you?"

"Maybe." Inuyasha didn't really want to talk about it.

Shippou lay silently, waiting. His blue eyes studied Inuyasha until Inuyasha felt like squirming. Instead, he snapped, "What?"

"She's worth taking a chance on. Always has been."

"Feh. I _know _that. I'm committed to her. Ain't the idiot-boy I used to be." Inuyasha picked at the fabric of his jeans, claws scratching off a bit of lint. "Gonna ask her if she feels the same way I do, 'bout us. 'Bout the future."

"Good for you." Shippou grinned. "Now go on back in there and get some sleep. Before I conk you on the head and drag you back down to that apartment myself."

"You'd do it, too," Inuyasha glared at him.

"Yup. Less chance of making noise and waking the girl up if you go to bed _yourself_, voluntarily, though," Shippou smirked. "Kagome needs to sleep too."

"Brat."

"Always. Get going!"

Inuyasha started to leave. Shippou added, in a softer tone of voice, "Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha turned back.

Shippou said quietly, "There was a time I thought I might lose you to your demon, after Amelia died. It's good to see you back to yourself."

"Feh," Inuyasha snorted, dismissively. But the expression on Shippou's face -- that of relief and happiness that he was okay -- would stay with him for a very long time. _The runt really does care, _Inuyasha thought. He'd forgotten that, for awhile.

-------------------------------

Kagome woke when the afternoon sun shone through the window and into her eyes. She yawned, rolled over, and bumped into a warm body sprawled in her bed.

_Inuyasha_.

He murmured sleepily, and then lifted his head. "You're awake."

"Yeah." She gazed for a moment at the marvel that was Inuyasha, in her bed, hair mussed and a sexy-sleepy look on his face. "How're you feeling?"

He coughed experimentally. He still had cruddy lungs, but they sounded like they were getting better. "Keh. I'll survive."

He reached for her, making a thrill of excitement swirl through the pit of her stomach. Just the anticipation was enough to make her heart race and tingles of heat to surge through her body. He sniffed, and grinned, and said, with a slightly groggy leer, "You smell wonderful."

"Pervert." She laughed and kissed him soundly. He returned the kiss with avid interest and quite a bit of skill. "It just occurred to me, koishii, that I've got the most marvelous man in my bed, I have _nowhere _to be today or tomorrow 'cause it's the weekend, and we don't have a single pressing battle. No shards to find, no monsters to fight ..."

He sat up, suddenly, going tense. The covers pooled around his waist, revealing his flawless chest and muscular arms. There wasn't a spare trace of fat anywhere on his body; she could see fine blue veins under his pale skin. God, she wanted him. She wanted round two of lovemaking with Inuyasha -- this time without the pain that had come with her first time, and this time with Inuyasha in his hanyou form.

Inuyasha lowered his head, amber eyes avoiding hers. "Kagome, no."

"What?"

"I ... have a few things I need to do. Will you forgive me if I put this ... off ... for a few days?"

"But ... you slept ..." She wasn't sure if she wanted to say, _You slept in my bed today _or _you slept with me a few days ago! _

He turned his face farther away from hers, so now she could only see him in profile. His adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed. "Just a few days. It'll be worth it, I promise. I promise I'll make the wait worthwhile. But I need ... I need a little time to ... there's a few things I have to do."

He turned back to her, amber eyes as intense as she'd ever seen them. "Kagome, I am _sorry _to do this to you because I ... I _love _you."

"Oh." She whispered. An apology and an I-love-you in the same sentence. She'd have given the odds of hearing those words all together in one breath from Inuyasha as practically nil. That he'd said them told her that he'd _meant _them.

"I need time, Kagome." He swung his legs over the side of the bed and she realized he was still wearing his jeans. "I promise, I'll be back soon. I'm _not _leaving you."

He leaned over and cupped her face in his hands, kissed her on the forehead, and then snagged his haori up off the back of a chair, shrugged it on over his bare chest, and added, "I left my cell phone number and my e-mail address on the table. Got yours off your computer. I hope that was okay."

"Yeah. Yeah, it's fine." She clutched the blankets to her chest, confused. "Inuyasha ..."

"I'm _sorry_. And I'll be back," he repeated, insistently. But he left her, and she nearly cried. She didn't understand _why _he was leaving.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

---------------------

Author's Notes: One chapter to go. Yay! And I'm done with the bulk of it, I just need to polish it a bit.

---------------------

At first, she was hopeful that Inuyasha would be back by dark -- but the afternoon passed quietly, with no sign of her hanyou. Her cel phone remained silent, and she received no e-mails from him or anyone else, except for the usual offers to enhance body parts she didn't own.

She watched TV for a little while, did her long-neglected homework, and called her boss to notify him that she was over "her" flu and would be back to work on Monday. Then, with some impatience, she contemplated the phone number and e-mail address he'd left, but what was she going to say? "Inuyasha, it's been four hours. Are you done with whatever you're doing and ready to come back to me yet?"

Hell no. She would respect his need for a bit of space and _not _be the possessive girlfriend. Even if he'd been so chokingly jealous of her time in the past that she'd wanted to smack him on a very regular basis, she would take the high road now and give him the time he wanted.

After more hours fitfully doing makeup homework that couldn't be turned into Monday, she called her mother. Mama answered the phone, "Moshimoshi, Higurashi shrine ..."

"Mama, it's me," Kagome said, unable to keep her voice entirely calm. Because it was really hitting her -- she'd found him. She really had found him. And things promised to turn out better than she'd ever hoped.

"Kagome, what's wrong?" Her mother mistook the tension in her voice as indication of a problem.

"I found him, Mama. I found him!" She yelled into the phone. "MAMA! I found Inuyasha!"

Her mother responded with a crow of delight, "You did? Is he okay? Are you two still friends? Amazing, Kagome ... I always knew you could do it ...!"

"In order, I did, he's fine, we're definitely still friends, and yeah, it's amazing, Mama." Kagome sat crosslegged on the bed, tension draining out of her shoulders as she spoke to her mother. She had faith in Inuyasha; he'd be back, sooner or later. Hell, they weren't even fighting this time ... "Mama, he was in a lot of trouble when I found him but it's all better now ... more than better, really. Mama, I want to invite him back for Christmas. Back to Japan."

"I think that's a lovely idea!" Her mother exclaimed, and then she giggled, sounding almost like a schoolgirl. "Kagome, you _can't _let that boy get away a second time."

"Mama, I will do _anything _to keep him this time," Kagome laughed, "I really will!"

----------------------------

The bouncer at Footloose's door eyed Inuyasha warily. _Very _warily. Inuyasha approached with his hands in his pockets and his head down. He figured his reception was going to be very cold, at best, and possibly quite hostile, given the events that had transpired here three years ago. But he had to try. He had to know a few things and say a few things.

"Inuyasha," the man said, finally.

Inuyasha looked up, trying to judge just how unwelcome he was going to be. He'd killed a woman here, and torn another one up. He'd left his wife dead on the floor, too. And he had not returned since that day, or even spoken to them.

"We figured you were dead, man," the bouncer said, reaching a hesitant hand out to touch Inuyasha's shoulder. Inuyasha fought the urge to flinch away; the man seemed to want to feel him to make sure he was solid and living. "God, we thought you crawled off and _died _somewhere."

Inuyasha blinked at the awe in the man's voice. _Thought me dead? _

But they didn't know how hard he was to kill. He'd been shot multiple times that night, though he didn't remember much at all after Amelia had died. He'd woken to himself in an alley, still bleeding from numerous bullet holes. While they knew he wasn't entirely human, they might well have assumed that being shot in the chest would kill him.

_Maybe a head shot_, he thought, absently, _would do it, if it scrambled my brains enough. Or something like a shotgun blast to the neck. But I heal too fast and too well for anything else to take me out. _.

"I ... wanted to talk to Courtney. Is she around?" Courtney was the owner of the place. She'd been a friend to Amelia -- and to him, by extension, once. He doubted she still was, now that she knew he could kill. But he was compelled to at least talk to her. He knew he'd see fear, maybe even terror, in her eyes. But he had to talk to her. He needed that closure.

"She's up in her office. Go on in." The bouncer pushed the door open.

Inuyasha blinked, surprised that he wasn't being turned away. He glanced uncertainly up at the much taller man, who murmured, "I'm so sorry about your wife."

He swallowed back a sudden lump in his throat.

The place was busy, on a Friday night. The glass bar that Buffy had thrown him through three years ago had been replaced by a mahogany and steel counter. Even the floor was different -- he looked down, remembering blood, and illogically expecting to see stains remaining. But of course, they couldn't allow that, and in any event, the marble that had been there before was replaced with dark wood that matched the trim on the counter.

There were people dancing to music -- the beat was good, and he remembered _dancing_ with Amelia, and sometimes by himself, and sometimes with one of her dozens of girlfriends. Fun times, fond memories. He hadn't ever thought it was something he could do until Amelia had bullied and begged him into learning ... and he'd discovered that, like all other things that required stamina and coordination, he was good at it.

He wondered if Kagome could dance, then shook his head. Maybe he'd find out, but it would be somewhere else. He would never dance here, ever again. He didn't plan to return here, ever again.

Inuyasha glanced across the dance floor and the patrons and didn't recognize anyone among the patrons, but this place was popular with kids from the college and three years was plenty of time for the drinking-age students to have been nearly completely replaced by a new crowd of faces.

None of the waitresses were familiar, and the bartender was someone new. He was glad -- he wasn't sure he could face Michael, if the man thought he'd _killed _Inuyasha. He'd never considered that as even a possibility before -- somewhere, there was a man who thought he'd shot a friend to death. And they'd been at least casual friends -- after hours, when he stayed to help clean up, he and Michael had often ended up talking about mundane things. Guy things. Sports, politics, movies, mostly, with the occasional digression to female actresses' assets (a guilty pleasure, on his part -- he'd always made sure Amelia never heard his opinions about other pretty girls, but hell, he _was _a guy.)

Inuyasha had worried about how badly he'd scared the man, but it had never occurred to him until now to think that Michael thought him dead. He'd been more worried that the bartender thought him a monster ...

He bit his lip for a moment, then climbed the stairs to the offices on the second floor. Nothing had changed here. He pushed open an "Employees Only" door and went down a narrow, short hall and past a bulletin board with required OSHA and Federal Wage Law posters on it, in addition to various notes from the management to the staff. A quick glance confirmed that Courtney was still waging an unsuccessful war on smoking on the loading dock (it was too close to an entrance to be legal), and she was looking for volunteers for overtime on New Years Eve.

Courtney's office was at the very end. The door was open; his sensitive ears could hear her chastising a waitress for showing up late for work. After a moment, the girl left, smelling of embarrassment and frustration and wringing her hands against her apron. She gave him a startled look, stopped short, and -- surprised out of her flusterment by his appearance -- said, "Woah! Those ears look real!"

"They are," Inuyasha said, simply. He could wear a hat in public, of course, but many people assumed he was wearing a head band with realistic fake ears on it ... he had great fun, sometimes, with children. They'd stare at his ears, obviously thinking _fake_, until he nonchalantly flicked one back. If he was in a particularly mischievous mood, he'd then grin with lots of teeth and watch the brats go scurrying back to mom ... only to peer curiously at him from a safe distance, still not sure what they'd seen.

The waitress gave him a warier look, and then skirted wide around him and fled down the hall. Inuyasha shook his head and then looked back towards Courtney's office -- to meet a pair of very wide blue eyes looking through the doorway. She'd heard his voice, he supposed, and the girl's words. "Inuyasha ..."

"Yeah." He put his hands in his pockets again and stared at his feet. "It's me."

"God, where have you been!" She ran forward and _hugged _him.

"Keh!" He protested, a bit, when she squeezed him hard. He retreated as soon as she released him, and studied her expression -- she was grinning -- and then he said, "Courtney, aren't you scared of me now? After what ... happened?"

Blunt words, but he'd just assumed she would be. She gripped his arms in her hands and repeated, "We thought you'd gone off to _die _somewhere, Inuyasha."

"Feh. Harder to kill than that. I'm glad Michael shot me ... it probably jolted me back to myself enough that I didn't hurt any of you." He couldn't meet her eyes.

"They _attacked _you. You were just trying to help Daniel kick those thugs out. And they attacked you. And they killed ... killed ..." Courtney trailed off. When he looked up, he saw pain and grief in her eyes. She truly looked haunted.

Inuyasha remembered, _Amelia was her friend. They used to go shopping together, and Amelia would go over to Courtney's house, and they'd be _girls _together. They used to giggle a bunch and I pretended I hated Amelia acting like a teenager but I always liked seeing Amelia laugh ... and she was always laughing around Courtney. _He swallowed hard, realizing for the first time that he wasn't the only person who'd suffered a tragedy that day.

"Amelia," he said, supplying the words she couldn't bring herself to say. "When they killed Amelia."

A hint of accusation crossed her eyes. "We thought you were dead too! You should talk to Michael yourself. Let him know you're okay. He's been drinking too much. He thinks about you a lot."

"I ... will. I'll call him."

"Yeah. That might be the best ... he took it harder than anyone else. He had to _shoot _you, you were out of your mind ... You should have told us you were alive!" Her joy at seeing him was being replaced by anger. He winced. He deserved it, he supposed.

"I ..." He tried to explain. "I thought you'd be terrified of me. I couldn't ... I couldn't face that. On top of everything else, I couldn't face seeing you guys scared of me."

She sighed, and hugged him again. He _could _smell nervousness on her, but she was making a real effort to prove to him (and perhaps herself) that she wasn't frightened. The effort counted for quite a bit, he supposed. "How long have you been coming here? Ten years? Twelve? Inuyasha, I could never be afraid of you." Her scent told him this was a lie, but it was an honest lie, and she meant well by it.

"They _killed _your _wife_. And they threw you into the bar hard enough to smash everything up. And you'd never done anything wrong except tell them to go sit down and stay out of the way in the same way you'd tell anyone else ... you're not exactly a fountain of good manners, but people _listened _to you when you used that tone of voice, which was why I asked you to help ... Gods, Inuyasha, I'd have been in an unreasonable rage too if anyone did that to my husband!"

She added, with gritted teeth, "I wanted to kill them too. That girl got Amelia from behind! And all she was trying to do was pull the blond bitch off you!"

He blinked at her. And heard the honest truth in her voice.

Courtney shook her head. "I'm glad you came by. I'm glad to know you're alive. We thought you were dead!" She slapped him in the chest with the back of her hand. "You're an idiot, you know that?"

"It's been said before," he murmured.

"Inuyasha, I _am _sorry about Amelia. She was a wonderful woman." He was hugged a third time. She was definitely trying to prove she wasn't afraid of him. "I'm so, so sorry."

He nodded. Then he took a deep breath, and exhaled sharply, and admitted, "I couldn't even face this place, or you people, I had to stay away or I feared losing myself entirely ... do you know what happened to ... to the body?"

"You don't even know?"

"I ... couldn't face anything. I was so alone ..." he shuddered. "I thought everyone would be so scared of me."

He was glad when she didn't hug him a fourth time. She frowned at him. He thought perhaps he'd confessed too much. But she simply said, "The coroner took the body away. We ... raised the funds ourselves for burial plot." She searched his face -- for what, he wasn't sure. "You know, I never knew her full name. And I didn't know where you lived, of course -- I know you keep your home a secret, because of what you are. She's officially a jane doe, only her first name known. I think they pretended to not notice she wasn't human ... But they finally buried her and we had a funeral."

Inuyasha bowed his head. "Dead's dead. Nothing you can do about dead 'cept bury the bodies and move on. And I hate funerals."

Except dead _wasn't _always dead. Guilt struck at him suddenly. Kagome had been given a second chance at life by Sesshomaru. Amelia was gone forever ... part of him desperately wished that Sesshomaru could have brought his wife back. But if Amelia had been brought back to life by Tenseiga, what of Kagome ... was it disloyal to Kagome to wish Amelia was alive?

He was so mightily confused. He needed to talk to someone, but the only person who he was comfortable in sharing those sorts of thoughts _was _Kagome. It wouldn't be fair to her to talk about Amelia; if memory served, she had been rather painfully jealous of Kikyou in the past. He didn't want to cause her that sort of grief now.

"She's buried at Greenlawn Estates. The plot has a nice view of the city lights at night," Courtney said, gently, drawing his attention back to the present. "It's up on a hill."

"Feh. She don't care about views now." He tried to hide his hurt and didn't quite succeed.

"She doesn't, no. But it's a nice place to sit awhile." Courtney smiled at him with eyes that were very sad. "Inuyasha, will you be back to see us again? We've missed you."

"Not here." He shook his head. "I can still ... see that day. I just wanted to ... see ... this place, one more time. And to thank you, for being a friend, to Amelia and me."

"You're welcome." Courtney reached behind her, snagged a pad of post-it notes off the desk, and wrote two phone numbers and an e-mail address down. "Here's my numbers. Cell and home. Maybe my husband and I can get together with you for lunch someday."

He blinked at the unexpected overture of friendship. Shyly, he said, "I'll ... take you up on that, I guess. And I can introduce you to Kagome ... she's ... she's ... I'm ..." How to explain Kagome to this woman, who'd often teased him about being joined at the hip with Amelia?

Courtney smiled faintly. "Kagome, hm? Amelia would have wanted you to move on."

Everybody kept saying that ... why couldn't he believe it?

-----------------------

Courtney gave him directions to the graveyard and the grave and he walked there, taking several hours when, if he'd hurried, he could have accomplished the trip in minutes. It was almost dawn when he arrived at the graveyard gates, which were locked. He hopped the fence and walked up the hillside to the plot. Courtney had been right about the view -- it was magnificent.

Someone else was already there, sitting beside the grave, staring off into the distance. His vision, better than human, showed that the person had blond hair and a small frame. He stood downwind, and the wind carried him confirmation of her identity: Buffy. He quietly stayed hidden in the shadows of a weeping willow tree, and watched in surprise. Part of him wanted to drive her off in outraged anger that she would _dare _come here. Part of him was just too tired to care.

Buffy sat there, on the grass, head on her knees, staring off into the distance.

When she spoke, the wind carried her words to his sensitive ears. "Sometimes, I hate my job. You know that?"

There was grief in her words, and terrible loneliness. She was, he realized, talking to Amelia.

"I keep going over that night, Amelia, and I keep trying to think how things could have been different. But we can't _do _anything different. If Kennedy had said, 'Hey, are you a good guy?' you could have killed me while she was waiting for an answer."

Buffy sighed, and her voice shook a bit as she spoke, "I've often wished I was just a normal girl. Because I hate this. I hate the responsibility ... e-every day, I decide who lives, who dies. If I make a mistake, the wrong people die. Sometimes somebody gets slain that shouldn't have been. Sometimes one of us dies. This is a war, Amelia ... and good people die in a war. I'm so sorry you were one of them. And I'm sorry your husband killed so many of us. But I just don't see how I can do anything different."

She brushed her hair over her shoulders, and continued to speak to the grave, "The good guys -- the demons who _aren't _evil and icky and nasty -- have _got _to learn to stay out of our way. Because we can't second guess ourselves. We don't have the _time _in a fight to figure out who the bad guys are. We just have to react if _we _want to survive. I learned that a long time ago."

Buffy stood up, suddenly, scanning the darkness. Perhaps she'd sensed his youki -- his demonic aura. Inuyasha withdrew, trusting the almost moonless night to hide his passage. Amelia wasn't going anywhere -- he could visit her later.

----------------------------

By Saturday afternoon, Inuyasha still hadn't returned to her.

Kagome moved restlessly in her apartment, scrubbing a kitchen counter that didn't need cleaning, washing windows, sweeping the floor. She was uneasy -- not really worried, but -- well, okay, she was worried.

_A few days ago, _she thought, _he was so distraught he was contemplating suicide. Tonight's the night of the new moon. If he wanted to kill himself, he could do it._

She shook her head and said aloud, "No, he promised me he'd come back. He wouldn't break a promise like that."

Kagome sighed and started rearranging the books on her bookshelf. Her homework was done, and she'd jogged two miles, and she'd spent half an hour in the gym. Maybe later, she'd head out to the range for some archery practice -- she had a few hours until sundown. Then, after, she could do a patrol through a few rough neighborhoods where vampires liked to hunt and see if she could take a few bad guys out.

She was scrubbing her sink when someone knocked at the door. Hoping it was Inuyasha -- she hadn't given him a key yet -- she ran to the door and swung it open. However, to her disappointment, it was the older British gentleman, Buffy's 'Watcher.' What was his name? Giles? "Good afternoon, Mr. Giles."

"Miss Higurashi," he nodded. Apparently, she'd gotten his name right, or he was too polite to correct her. She stepped aside and gestured for him to enter. He said, approvingly, "You already know not to invite people into your house. Very good."

"Please take your shoes off." She pointed at the pile of her sandals and sneakers by the door. People here always had to be reminded; she found walking around with shoes covered in outside-dirt inside her home to be _gross_.

Giles hesitated -- Kagome's tone of voice hadn't exactly been friendly -- and then he sat down on her couch, which was by the door, and removed his patent leather dress shoes. What, did he think she was going to turn into a Watcher-eating monster and chase him out the door sans footwear? Kagome ignored his hesitation and asked, "Does Buffy know you're here?"

"Yes," he said, standing up in his stocking feet.

That was a warning not to try anything violent with him, she thought. It also said they were trusting her, at least a little, because she got the feeling that this man was important and beloved by his friends. If they thought she was really dangerous, Buffy would have been at his side.

"Is Inuyasha around?" Giles asked, warily.

"No." She was surprised they hadn't figured that out before approaching her -- or maybe they did believe she was alone, but Giles wanted to verify this. "Though I'm expecting him back sooner or later."

"Good, good. I just wanted to talk to you alone for a bit." _As I thought, he doesn't want Inuyasha growling at us from the background while he talks. Can't say as I blame him, though Inuyasha _would _be polite or I'd make him go sit on the roof until he could find his manners. But Mr. Giles doesn't know that. _

"Would you like some tea? I actually know how to _make _it." Kagome offered, moved to be polite since he wasn't actually being rude. He'd simply come to talk, she supposed. She could respect that. "I have green, or there's some Earl Grey."

"Earl Grey. Thank you."

While she was making tea, she asked, "How's Buffy doing?"

"Her powers are back. I must say, you're quite the double threat. Slayer _and _witch." He sighed. "We need you, you know. We've lots of girls who are strong and can violently hit things until they die. But you're something different."

Kagome sat down at the kitchen table. She'd expected an overture like this. She'd inferred a few things from what Spike had said about the Slayer's organization, and had read a bit more online about them. The Slayers weren't exactly forgiving, but they had a long history of 'the enemy of my enemy is my ally' behavior. "You're asking me to join up with your organization."

He nodded. "You're a Slayer, Kagome. You belong with us."

"To quote Inuyasha, _Feh." _

He lifted an eyebrow at her. Urgently, he said, "You'd be trained. Well trained. We have a school in Cleveland for Slayers. You'd have a stipend, and all the resources the Watcher's Council can provide. And -- you're a Slayer. With those abilities come responsibilities and obligations. We can help you with that."

"Mr. Giles, I've been fighting demons since I was fifteen. For the first two years, I didn't have these special Slayer powers that you people are so hyped up about." Kagome said, levelly. Behind her, the burner under the tea pot startled ticking as it heated up. Giles regarded her with a bit of a sad frown and said nothing, so she continued, "I don't complain about being stronger or faster, but ... I don't need a school or support from people I can't trust to make a difference in the world. Even if I agree with you that I have an obligation to make the world a better place -- I don't need _you _to do it."

He sighed, took his glasses off, and pinched the bridge of his nose. In a tone of resignation, he said, "I'm used to dealing with little girls, these days. Idealistic children who think they can change the world by killing things. They see everything in shades of black and white; we're the good guys, demons are the bad guys, and bloody hell, it's good to talk to someone who isn't a damned _little girl_."

She snorted a laugh. Far from being offended by her refusal to join with his people, he sounded almost approving. She decided she could like Giles, even if she trusted him about as far as she could throw Inuyasha.

Spike's stories had included several examples of betrayals by this man towards his friends and allies in the name of 'doing what was right'; she'd gotten the impression that he hid a ruthless streak behind the facade of a genial scholar. Still, he meant well.

"I would claim you could trust us, if I thought you'd believe me," he said. "It's a pretty lie for the little girls ... they tend to believe it, too. But you don't need to _trust _someone to work with them. Kagome, quite frankly, we need more Slayers like you in our ranks. We _need _people who will question the status quo. You could make a difference working from the inside."

"And why would anyone would listen to me?"

"You've got Buffy's respect. That takes some doing." He adjusted his glasses. "I have a suspicion you'd figure out a way to get your voice heard."

_Yeah, _Kagome thought, _Had to defeat Buffy to get her respect, too. _

"No, not because you beat her," Giles said, apparently reading her mind -- or at least, her expression. "It's because you managed to defuse one hell of a nasty situation between us and Inuyasha. Somehow. And I'm not even sure how you did it."

"What of Inuyasha?" She asked, quietly. "I join you, what of my friend?"

The tea kettle whistled. She rose to pour hot water over tea leaves, and said, when he was slow to respond, "I can answer that one: Inuyasha wouldn't be accepted by anyone in your organization. And likely, because of my friendship with him, neither would I. Would _you _be willing to trust him? After the history he has with you?"

Giles sighed. "Trust," he murmured, softly.

"I thought so." She leaned against the kitchen counter. "The way I see it, I have to chose between Inuyasha and joining your Slayer club. And it's a very easy choice to make. You never even had a chance, Mr. Giles. Not if I can't have Inuyasha at my side."

"Your loyalty is admirable," he slid his hand under his glasses and pinched his nose again. She wondered if he had a headache. "I only hope your demon friend returns it and you aren't hurt."

"I have nothing to fear from Inuyasha. I have far more to fear from you. And he's a hanyou, not a demon. His soul is human."

"We could keep your relationship with him ... quiet," Giles offered, hesitantly.

"I'll not _hide_ the fact that Inuyasha is my boyfriend," she said that, coldly. "There's nothing shameful about our relationship."

He gave her a pained look that said he was actually _worried _about her. "You know that openly ... courting ... him will cause problems for both of you."

"We are both aware of the realities of this world." Kagome met his eyes, hoping he could see the warning there. He apparently did, because he nodded once. They understood each other, she thought. He didn't like or trust Inuyasha, but understood she'd _hurt _anyone who tried to touch him. She understood that the _problems _he referred to could very well come from the Slayers themselves, if they had reason to believe that Inuyasha was a danger for any reason ... and they might very well consider her _part _of that danger and a fair target, if it came down to that.

She handed him a cup of tea, and said, "I'll never join your group, Mr. Giles. But ... if you need help, if you're fighting something really nasty and you need more fighters, remember that both I and Inuyasha are on your side. And never hesitate to call us, if you really need us."

He blinked at that, a bit, and blew on his tea to cool it.

"Inuyasha can kick ass in a fight," Kagome grinned, remembering a few of his better battles. "So can I. And we'll both help, if the cause is just. We make a good team, he and I."

Giles nodded. "We'll keep that in mind, but I ask one thing ..." He sipped the tea. "You're living here in LA, which always seems to be a hotbed of supernatural activity. If you run across anything beyond what you can tackle, give me a call in return." He pulled his wallet out and produced a business card.

She accepted the business card, and glanced at it. It had his phone number on it, e-mail address, and a PO Box in Cleveland, Ohio. She nodded. "You already have my information, I believe?"

"We did some research on you, yes. We have your contact information."

Kagome hesitated, for a long moment, then said, "Mr. Giles, would you be willing to tell me more _about _Slayers? I do have a lot of questions."

He grinned, suddenly, an expression that made him look years younger. Boyish, almost. "Miss Higurashi, _that _is a question I don't hear very often from Slayers themselves. I'd be delighted to give you all the information you need."

----------------------------

Sunday passed, without sign of Inuyasha. She went to school and work on Monday, leaving him a note on her kitchen table -- but her apartment was undisturbed when she came home that evening. She slept alone with her cell phone by her bed, but he didn't call, and her e-mail box remained empty of messages from him.

When Tuesday passed without contact from him she was truly concerned and she called his cell phone. It rang several times without answering, then rolled over to voice mail.

"Inuyasha? I'm worried about you. Please call me."

By late evening, she was ready to drive out to his house and check on him. But then her computer beeped to announce an incoming e-mail. The e-mail he sent was short, but a little reassuring.

"Kagome,

"I've got a date with a lawyer tomorrow that might take all day. Somebody's looking at my property; they may be willing to buy it and I've a few things I need to take care of with my finances. I'm sorry I haven't called you -- I've got some errands to run and I just need a little time. Why don't we plan on something this weekend?

"And don't worry about me. I'm fine."

At least he was okay. But a small voice in her heart whispered, _He's too busy for time for me ... even just to come by for dinner. _

--------------------------------

Wednesday night, Inuyasha sat on a rock overlooking the canyon below and studied the written offer for his large tract of land. It was one of the biggest remaining bits of wilderness in the area -- he owned everything from ridge to ridge, and down to the road a half mile distant. To the north was national forest that stretched for thousands of acres more.

He sighed. They were offering a few million less than what he wanted, and without the guarantee to keep the property intact. Still ... he knew this developer, and the land would most likely be broken up into ten and twenty acre parcels with very expensive luxury homes. Some of the habitat for the animals would remain intact, though not all of it, and there would be houses and roads through canyonland that had been untouched for millenia.

Inuyasha closed his eyes, remembering when this was all wilderness. He remembered the day he'd found this land ... he'd bought it from a rancher, who considered it too rough and rugged for good cattle country. It had been cheap. And he and Amelia had lived many decades here ... he remembered chasing her by moonlight through the trees. Picnics on the flat rock at the highest point of his land, where you could see for miles and miles in all directions. The spring that fed the creek, where there were frogs and dragonflies, and the deep plunge pool below it, perfect for swimming on a hot summer day.

There were deer, in the canyon, and raccoons, and coyotes; the occasional black bear wandered down out of the hills -- once, there had been grizzlies, but those were long gone now. And ...

He blinked. A mountain lion sat not ten feet away from him, regarding him with calm amber eyes. _Familiar _eyes. They were not the eyes of a mortal cat.

"Hello, old friend," he said, softly, "It's been a long time."

The cat stood up, revealing three tails where once there had only been two. She padded closer and then lay down next to him. He reached out and scritched between her shoulder blades, using just enough of his own claws to make her purr in enjoyment.

"Good to see you. Wish you could tell me where you've been."

Kirara rolled over, resting her head in his lap. He scratched under her chin; he could feel the purr vibrating from her throat at his touch. "Amelia's dead, Kirara. It happened three years ago."

The neko-youkai made a concerned prrripping noise, and sat up.

"Yeah, I know. I had a rough time of it for awhile ..."

The cat rubbed her cheek against his face, and he reached out and scratched her ears. "We've lost a lot of people over the years, haven't we?"

When Sango had died, Kirara had disappeared for decades. He had been convinced they would never see her again -- but then, one day, she had simply reappeared. Amelia had stepped into the bedroom and found a cat lounging on the bed. Kirara had come and gone over the years, though he'd never seen her on this side of the ocean before.

The cat stared out over the canyon where he'd had so many happy memories of Amelia. He didn't even know why she was even here ... impulsively, he hugged her, burying his face in her soft fur. They'd never been close friends -- she'd always been Sango's buddy, not his -- but they'd shared a lot together, regardless. She was loyal, beyond all doubt. "I've missed you, you stupid cat. And I've found Kagome again, Kirara. Or rather, she found me."

The mountain lion disappeared, suddenly, replaced by the much-more-easily cuddled house-cat sized kitten. She hopped into his lap and curled up, apparently perfectly willing to be cuddled. He stroked her fur, and sat there in silence, thinking of the past.

"I've an offer to sell this land, Kirara. I don't ... I don't think I'm going to accept it. This place reminds me of Amelia, but thinking of her doesn't hurt so much when I remember the good times. We had a lot of good times here. And this is home."

The cat purred. He hoped she'd stay for awhile -- though he also hoped she didn't expect to be fussed over like this where anyone else could see him go mushy! He added, "Shippou's living here, in the city. Both he and Kagome would like to see you. I can tell you where they live if you want to stop by."

The cat stopped purring.

He thought about that suggestion, and pictured how much he would enjoy seeing the look on both Shippou's face and Kagome's when they saw Kirara. He suggested, "Or should we all get together? Would you prefer that?"

She stretched and returned to a steady purr.

Inuyasha balled up the proposal from the lawyer for the land sale, and said, "Hey kitty, wanna burn something?"

He tossed the wad of paper into the air. Kirara leaped after it and batted it aloft higher with one paw lighting with flame. The contract went _poof _into ash. The cat landed at his feet, sat down, licked a paw, and flicked her three tails in saucy satisfaction. He grinned. "Thought you might feel that way. What do you think of my home, Kagome?"

_Prrr_, she said, in response. The cat approved.

He stretched a bit. "Got to go into town for awhile, have some shopping to do. Hey, you're a girl -- maybe you can give me some opinions on some stuff. Want to tag along?"

The youkai cat hopped up onto his shoulder. Apparently, she was happy to accompany him. Inuyasha smiled and rubbed her ears again. "I've missed you, furball."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

-----------------------

The gate slid open smoothly when she keyed the passcode in to the little keypad. Kagome hesitated, gazing past the open gate at the leaf-strewn and cracked asphalt driveway. The day was almost done; the sun was a few scant degrees above the horizon and the road was in deep shadow.

Kagome wondered if she was intruding.

_Nine days ago, he was sitting in my bathtub contemplating slashing his wrists. And he was serious enough about it to cut himself and to sit there until the water ran ice cold and not even notice. _

Grimly, Kagome shook her head. Regardless of his _wants _she couldn't leave him alone anymore. If he ordered her away, she'd go -- heartbroken, but she'd go.

_He's not testing me. Inuyasha doesn't think that way. This isn't a game he's playing, 'let's see if she'll come to me' ... _

She was intruding. She knew it.

_And if he's just too busy for me ... no, that's not it. He doesn't have a job, I'm a bit fuzzy about what he actually does for a living, but I know he doesn't have a day job. He'd have mentioned that. _

She put her car into gear and rolled through the gate. It slid smoothly shut behind her, and she headed up the narrow, steep road to his house.

His home was dark and quiet. The sun, now touching the horizon, cast strong horizontal shadows across the old territorial house, and long golden sunbeams through the trees. She parked next to a dust and cobweb covered Jeep and stepped out, her boots crunching on the eroding gravel-covered asphalt. If Inuyasha was around, he'd surely heard her coming, but the door didn't open and no white-haired hanyou appeared.

_If he doesn't want me to find him, I won't, _she knew.

She walked up to the door, pulled the screen door open, and knocked. No one answered. She stood in silence for a long, long moment. If he was inside, she didn't need to knock twice. She wondered if she should be pushier, go inside -- was he sitting in a dark cold room somewhere, feeling terrible? Damnit.

For a long moment, she hesitated in indecision.

A memory of blood and tears spurred her to try the knob. It was locked.

Maybe the back door ... the house had a wrap-around porch, so she simply walked around two corners to the kitchen door. It, too, was locked tight.

Had he left town? Or ... a bad thought occurred ... for all that he'd been a hero, the Slayers wouldn't soon forgive him his crimes. Or lose their fear of him. Had they done something to him when she wasn't around to witness it? Giles didn't speak for all of them. All it took was one person with a grudge and a bit of luck or the right magical whammy -- Inuyasha was tough, but not invulnerable.

A gust of wind whistled across the ridge and swirled under the eaves of the house. It smelled of smoke, and she turned, wondering if there was another house she hadn't seen. A fireplace, perhaps? It was cool enough, inasmuch as southern California ever got cold.

The smoke was coming from just below the level of the ridge, not two hundred feet away. She could see it curling up, just a faint clue that she wasn't alone. She walked towards it, following a path worn amid the native vegetation.

When she saw the back of his head, she breathed a sigh of relief. She'd been holding her breath and hadn't even realized it. Inuyasha was seated in a very familiar pose before a fire pit, shoulders hunched, fists resting on the ground between his feet, wind tugging at his long white hair. He stared out at the sunset, motionless. He was wearing jeans and a windbreaker, but Tessaiga was in his lap, and she saw a whetstone and oil on the ground beside him.

"Inuyasha?"

No answer.

"I'm sorry for intruding."

"Gave you the combination to the gate, didn't I?" His words were a little abrupt -- he didn't sound angry, or even annoyed, just somehow nervous. In a softer tone of voice, and with a glance over his shoulder, he added, "Kagome, you're always welcome here."

She smiled faintly, encouraged. That was a friendlier greeting than she'd expected. She sat down next to him, a safe few feet away. "You're missing her again. I know I'll always be ... second ... maybe third ... in your heart, Inuyasha. But I want ... I want you in my life. I couldn't stay away any more."

He gave her a another look, this one startled, with his amber eyes gone wide. Then those remarkable eyes narrowed and he said, "Keh. Settle for third best, would you? You deserve better than that."

"Yeah. I do!" She couldn't get a hint of anger of her voice. She swallowed down a lump and said, "But I'm not going to get that, am I? You haven't been to see me _once_. So I'll settle for what I can have. For whatever you're willing to give me."

He was silent, looking at her with narrowed eyes. He looked angry at her. "Have some pride, woman. I know you better than that. You're nobody's bitch."

"Inuyasha," she looked down at her hands and refusing to rise to the bait -- though it took some effort not to respond to his tone of voice with hot words of her own. He sounded _disgusted _with her. "I _worry _about you. You're all alone up here. Shippou said you're not answering his calls either. You _need _people."

A gentle hand touched her hair, clawed nails combing through her curls. She looked up to see that he'd moved closer -- he was kneeling right next to her, looking at her with an oddly intense expression. He shook his head, urgently. "Kagome, don't do this. Not to yourself ... not to me."

"What else would you have me do, Inuyasha?" She said, bitterly. "I didn't devote the last three years of my life to finding you only to walk away now that I know you're alive, but hurting so very bad. I'm here for you, Inuyasha. In whatever way you want. You want me to go back to just being your best friend? I'll do it. You want more? I'll do that too. Whatever you want. But I'm not going to let you push me away."

It felt like her heart was breaking as she said that. She'd slept with him ... when she'd thought he was going to die. Deep down, she'd _known _they wouldn't be able to break that spell. She'd thought she was saying goodbye -- desperation had pushed her _way _past a point she normally would have gone. Now, he would live; they had ample time in front of them. But what had been simple and clear then -- make love to him while she still had a chance -- had suddenly complicated matters greatly.

She wanted to _be _his lover. And she wanted his love to match. It hurt to grovel, to beg, knowing she might just have to accept a few scraps of his affection when she wanted a full-course meal. She'd never thought she would stoop this low. But she'd given him her heart, and she didn't think there was any way to take it back. What was she supposed to do, just walk away?

Walking away would hurt worse even than _this_. Than him just ... ignoring ... her.

And ... and she _was _worried about him, about his state of mind. She could never forgive herself if she let her pride get in the way and something horrible happened later. If she wasn't at his side, she couldn't protect him.

To her amazement, he didn't say anything -- he just dropped his hand to her shoulders, and then suddenly wrapped both arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. Only after several moments of holding her close, during which she was heartily confused, he whispered one of those rare but heartfelt apologies. "Kagome, I'm sorry for making you think you needed to beg to have me. I just wanted some time by myself. I needed to sort a few things out and take care of some stuff."

"Don't send me away. Please."

His grip tightened on her. "Don't _beg_, damnit. Get mad at me. Throw things at me. 'Sit' me. Stomp home and swear you'll never speak to me again. I don't ... I don't _want _this Kagome. I want my spunky, hot-headed, funny, naive, kind-hearted Kagome. The Kagome who tells me off and plants my face in the dirt is the Kagome I love."

"Love?" She sat back, hearing that single word only belatedly. He'd said it before, but still ...

He pressed her forehead against hers. "Keh. Love."

"But ... you didn't come ..." Had he really just said he _loved _her? It had been casual, but all the more honest for that. "I thought maybe you were thinking about Amelia ... that you weren't ready for us ... that you didn't know how to tell me that you wanted me to back off ..."

He sighed and let her go, though he didn't move away. "Kagome, I will _always _love Amelia. Loving you ... feels like I'm betraying her, it does, and I won't lie to you about that. For four and a half centuries I never looked at another woman. I never even thought about another woman. But she's gone. And I'm still here. And my heart says it wants you so very badly."

He folded his arms and stared at the fire. "I want to move on, Kagome. I've been sitting here trying to say goodbye to centuries of my life so I can move on with you in my future. It's not exactly easy. I was hoping to have a little more time before you showed up. Figured you would, if I didn't go to you. You always do."

"Oh. If you want, I can go ..."

"No! Don't go. You're here now. Fuck it, I'm so damned confused."

"Me too!" She said with a laugh. "Fancy that. Inuyasha confuses Kagome. Like _that _hasn't ever happened before."

"I think Amelia ... I think she'd understand." He didn't sound sure about that, and he picked a twig up off the ground and flicked it into the fire. "But she's dead. She doesn't get a vote either way now. And I want to do this right with you, Kagome."

She suddenly felt like a complete idiot. "Why didn't you _say _something to me? I was so worried about you ..."

"Wanted time alone to come to terms with things. Still not sure if I'm even close yet. Might not be for a long while. You'll have to bear with me ... uh, yell at me if I'm being an idiot, don't think you ever have to grovel. It doesn't suit you and I don't like it." He flicked another twig at the fire. "I wanted time to think how to do this right. Wanted time to do a bit of shopping too. "

"Shopping?" Now she was completely befuddled.

"Keh. Shopping." He scratched his head, "Called your mom yesterday morning, too. She screamed in my ear when I told her who I was. I think I'm still deaf."

"... called my mom?" Why in the world had he called her mom?

He reached into his pocket and produced a little velvet box. With a rueful, lopsided grin that bared one fang, he said, "I didn't have a clue what your ring size was. Your mother deafened my _other _ear when I told her why I was calling her. I still can't believe she _approves _of me."

"... what?" She stared stupidly at him. She was having difficulty processing this conversation. That little box wasn't what she thought it was, was it? For _her_?

"Do you want to do this _right_?" He asked, earnestly. "Marry me? Because want that. A lot."

"Inuyasha ..." She closed her eyes. Opened them. He was still sitting there, still holding a jewelry box. It was a grey box, and she recognized the logo of one of the more expensive jewelry stores in town. He hadn't "gone shopping" at the dollar store, that was for sure ... The evening wind tousled his hair, and he impatiently brushed it out of his eyes and waited, also impatiently by the way he was fidgeting, for her response. He'd mentioned doing something with his finances. Had he needed to raise money for this?

"Um."

He fumbled the box open with his claws, revealing a rather tasteful engagement ring -- a simple gold band, one rather nice sized diamond set into it. Eyes not too many shades different from that gold searched her face. "Well?"

"Uh. Why ... why are you asking me _now_?" They'd only been back together for ten days.

"Because I want you to know how I feel." His response was earnest, and something she'd never expected to hear from her hanyou. "I want to spend the rest of your life with you. And I wanted you to know that you're second best to no one. It _is _possible to love more than one person in a lifetime, Kagome. What matters is who you chose to be loyal to." He lowered his head, then looked up at her.

She took the little box from his fingers. Her hands were shaking so bad she nearly dropped it, and he caught them with his and steadied her. And then he smirked, and she glared, and he grinned broader, and then she giggled. Because that smirk was so very Inuyasha. He'd managed to completely upend her entire worldview with a pretty bit of jewelry and he was _proud _of it.

Somehow, she managed to extract the ring from the box and try it on. She held it up to the last glow of the dying sunrise. It made her hand look dainty, girly, despite the calluses from long hours of archery practice and her chewed-on fingernails. It was the most beautiful ring she'd ever seen, and so utterly unexpected. _Inuyasha _had asked her to marry him.

Belatedly, she realized that asking the question had to have been very difficult for him. If she said no, it would hurt him quite a bit.

Oh. Right. An answer. She laughed suddenly, feeling giddy and light. "Yes! Oh, _yes_!"

He sat back, scratched his head, and said ruefully, "Oi, woman, you had me worried there fore a minute."

"Inuyasha, you just asked me to _marry _you." She said, in amazement. Awe. Never in a million years had she expected _this_.

"Did I? Oh, crap, I didn't mean to. Here, give that back!" He reached for her hand.

"Don't even think about it, dog-boy." She held her hand beyond his reach and glared. "Try it and I'll 'sit' you!"

He grinned, lunged forward, caught her arm at the elbow, and then instead of removing the ring as he was jokingly threatening, he pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed her fingers. And he studied her for a reaction, eyes a little wary, a little frightened.

She pulled her fingers free and slid both arms around his neck. His hands dropped to her waist and he pulled her into his lap, and then they kissed. After several minutes, he came up for air and said a bit shyly, "Would you like to go inside? I actually cleaned my bedroom yesterday. And there's food -- I can feed you. Make you dinner. It's _not _ramen, I promise."

She giggled suddenly, resting her forehead against his cheek. He was babbling; he sounded suddenly as nervous as she felt. They'd taken a huge step, she wasn't sure if either of them were actually ready for that level of commitment. "Food would be good. I'm not sure ... maybe bedroom _later_."

"Tonight?" He said, sounding eager. His eyes were sparkling with amusement and hope.

And she knew he _wanted _her. The thought made her wildly nervous. The last time had been under very different circumstances. It almost felt like a first time all over again.

"I ..." She hesitated, wondering if she could live up to his expectations. He'd had four hundred and fifty years of experience. She'd had ... once.

"Or not." He mumbled, looking away.

"Inuyasha ..."

"If you really want to wait ..." He sounded insecure, scared. He suddenly pulled her into a fierce, tight hug -- it wasn't the slightest bit sexual, just intensely emotional. "Kagome, we can wait. It's okay."

She snorted. "Wait? You have to be crazy, dog-boy. I _want _you."

"Me too." The smirk was back. "Get up. Let's go inside. Cold out here."

"Hold on a second," she said, and impulsively reached for the rosary. If he was going to commit to her on this level, she figured it was past time to remove it. She wasn't really thinking, just reacting. It had been put on him to protect her from his claws, a long time in the past; there was obviously no need for that now.

He caught her hand before she could touch it. He didn't seem surprised by her gesture at all. With dignity, he said, "No, Kagome."

"But ..."

"_No_." He sighed and kissed her fingers. Matter of factly, he said, "We both know what I am and what I can do. I'd never hurt you -- but, best it stay on me. Somebody should hold my leash. I'm just very glad it's you."

_Twelve girls_, she remembered. That would haunt Inuyasha. The rosary would be a comfort to him, where once it had been a shackle. Now she understood, and she nodded simple acceptance of his wish to remain bound when once upon a time he'd clamored for his freedom.

------------------

Much later, she sat on the steps of his house, staring out over the city -- Inuyasha, inside, was doing dishes and not letting her help. He'd grumped at her, "This first night here, you're my guest. Tomorrow, you can do the dishes after breakfast if you want."

They'd touched over dinner -- fingers to fingers, toes under the table, glances that met and smoldered. That promised _bedroom _had better come soon, she thought; anticipation and nervousness warred in her stomach. Her stomach churned with butterflies, her dinner sitting uneasily. She would make love with him. And in the morning, and for a very long time to come, he'd be there with her.

Idly, she wondered if she'd give up her apartment. It would be a long drive from his house to school, but she didn't want to live apart from him. Maybe during the week he could move in with her ... his house was far nicer than her tiny one bedroom, though. Maybe the drive would be worth it.

And she'd probably kill him within a month if they tried to live in her apartment together. Kagome had no illusions about Inuyasha's ability to be annoying, abrasive, and infuriating when he was in the right (or wrong) temper. Under the best of circumstances, he was moody. It was just simply who he was.

She touched the ring. The gold was warmed by her skin, the diamond rough. She didn't normally wear much jewelry, and it felt weird to have a ring on at all. Much less Inuyasha's ring ...

In all the time she'd known him, she'd never pictured him _proposing _to her, at least not seriously -- though she could confess to childish daydreams occasionally. She'd even doodled a few hearts with their names intertwined in the margins of her school notes. But seriously? Never.

However, given his rather formidable level of loyalty on top of a vulnerability and insecurity that was so long-standing it seemed welded to his soul, it made a sort of sense. He wanted a commitment from _her, _a symbolic promise never to leave himAnd now, in this modern world, he had the confidence to ask for it -- and the sense of self worth to believe he was deserving of such a promise from her.

His bare feet padded across the creaky deck behind her. He sat down, wiping his hands on a towel, and said, "I've always loved the view up here. It's why we bought this land. You know it was considered practically worthless when we purchased it?"

"Mm. That was a long time ago." California real estate prices had been frightening since prehistoric times.

He leaned forward, clasped his hands between his knees, and eyed her sideways. "Kagome, there's one thing that I don't understand."

"Hm?"

"You've been searching for me for three years. Shippou didn't tell you I was alive; I asked him. How did you know?" He sounded only curious.

"I got a letter."

"From who?"

"I don't know. That's the weirdest thing. It wasn't signed, and it wasn't very specific. Here ..." She fished in her jacket pocket, pulled it out, and handed the envelope and its contents to him.

He gave the photograph a hard look and then he frowned sharply before opening the letter. Then, with a sudden swift move, he sat bolt upright. Several times, his eyes scanned those few sentences.

"What is it?" She asked. His expression was strange. "Do you know who sent it?"

He sniffed the letter. "The lawyer that handles my finances sent it. He has the worst cologne you've ever smelled; I can still detect it. The man positively reeked. The _letter _... Kagome, the _letter _was written by Amelia. It's her handwriting."

"But she's dead!"

"Yes, Kagome, Amelia is dead," he replied with sarcasm.

"So how did that get mailed to me?" A very bad thought briefly crossed her mind; she dismissed it. If it were true, she'd kill herself now and save all three of them the grief and angst. That would be just too many coincidences for one lifetime ... _one _undead girlfriend complicating their lives had been bad enough.

"Kagome, I wouldn't ever let her talk about what would happen if one of us died. We had one of the worst fights of our life over hiring that lawyer to plan things out, and she took care of all of it -- I could never face the possibility that one of us might pass before the other, someday. I think she had a premonition, though ... knew it then, too."

His took a long, shuddering breath, and suddenly, swiftly, turned away from her. She realized he was hiding his expression. "This is ... this is her way of looking out for me. I wasn't sure ... she had a jealous streak, Kagome. I wasn't sure what she would think of me finding someone else ..." His voice was shaky.

"She ... she had the lawyer send this to me?" Kagome touched the letter cautiously. "After she died?"

"Hai." His shoulders shook. "She didn't want me to be alone."

"She could have been more specific about how to find you," Kagome grumped. She put a hesitant hand on his back between his shoulder blades, wanting to hold him but not sure if _he _wanted the contact.

He snorted. "She probably figured if you were worthy, you'd succeed in finding me. It was a test of sorts. Amelia thought that way. If you'd given up before you found me, she would have figured you didn't deserve me."

"Oh." It made a kind of twisted sense. "I wish I could have met her."

"Gods, I miss her." He exhaled again, and his shoulders shook.

"Are you crying?" She asked gently, because he had his face buried in his hands.

"No!" A lie. A tiny sob escaped between his fingers.

"Well, _excuse me_," she said, "My ears must be hearing things."

"There's no _sense _in tears. I can't ... I'm not crying!" He denied, shaking his head. He drew in a gulping breath.

"Don't be stupid. It's okay to cry, tough guy." She crawled around him on her hands and knees to sit in front of him.

"I'm. Not. Crying." He insisted.

"Okay. Look at me."

"I'm not! She's dead and gone and there isn't a fucking thing I can do about it and it'll only hurt you if I keep mourning her! You deserve me happy and focused on you, not dwelling on what's dead and gone in my past!"

Kagome pulled his hands gently away from his face. His cheeks were wet, as she'd known they would be. "Inuyasha, it's okay. Really. Let it out. Just this once. You bottle stuff up too much."

His face crumpled, and he gave a little hitching cry. Then he sobbed. Not the silent, stifled sobs she'd heard from him before, when she'd held him the night she'd found him in the shower, but almost a bawl. Between choked cries, he said, "I didn't ... I didn't want to ... do this ... to you. This is _your _night, Kagome. I just ... I just asked you to marry me ... I shouldn't be crying about ... I should be happy ..."

"It's okay. We'll have plenty of other happy nights." Her best friend was hurting again; how could she think of anything else but comforting him?

"Damn tears!" He tried to pull away and she wouldn't let go. Wracking sobs shook him -- healthy grief, allowing everything out and letting everything go. How long he cried, she didn't know. When he subsided to sniffles and little hitching breaths, however, she stood up and pulled him to his feet as well.

"Inuyasha," she said, seriously, wrapping her arms around him. "Have you ever really cried about her before? Before I got here?"

He shook his head. "Only that night when you found me in the tub..." he rubbed his wrist self-consciously, where the mark from the knife was long gone. "Crying doesn't do any damn good. Done more in the last two weeks than I've done in the last two hundred years. Damnit, Kagome, you're gonna turn me into a wimp."

She wasn't sure what to say to that. He kept stuff to himself until it choked him, sometimes. Even if she asked, he'd dismiss her concern with a cutting remark or a sharp word. She did the only thing she could think of -- she just rested her head against his chest.

"I need to get some water or something," he muttered, finally, stepping away. She followed him into the kitchen where he bustled about clinking ice into glasses for both of them, then pouring water over the ice from a jug in his refrigerator. He repeatedly dried his eyes with the sleeve of his t-shirt, and snuffled a bit. He handed her one glass, and then led the way into his living room, where he claimed a seat on the couch.

"Sit down," he said, not unkindly. She sat. He gave her a rueful smile. "Bet you'd rather be in the bedroom with me, ne?"

"Not tonight," she said, honestly. If he made love to her in _this _mood, she'd have no idea if he was having sex with her, or if he was lost in his memories of Amelia. "You need to talk."

"I want to tell you about her," he said, thoughtfully, staring into his tea.

"I'll listen." She leaned back against the couch cushions.

"Don't want to fucking cry again." He averted his eyes, obviously embarrassed by his displays.

"Then don't. Tell me about the good times." Anything to get him talking. She didn't want him to think he couldn't talk about Amelia. That wasn't fair to him -- and in truth, she was a bit curious and not particularly threatened. His earlier words and the ring on her finger had reassured her that he _didn't _view her as second or third best.

"You don't mind?" He asked, quietly. There was real concern in his voice when he added, "You came unglued quite a few times over Kikyou. I don't want to hurt you like that again, ever."

"Just tell me the truth, koi. That's all I ask." She smiled reassuringly at him.

He closed his eyes, and leaned back too, and quietly began to spin a tale of a woman remarkable enough to win his love, and brave enough to love him back. Kagome listened, said little, and would have been lying if she'd claimed the story didn't bother her at least a bit despite her earlier thoughts that she wouldn't be threatened. But she didn't interrupt him, and in truth, she was also fascinated. More than anything else, he was her best friend and they had five hundred years of catching up to do now that the crisis was over. Her urge to be jealous was tempered with an urge to listen to juicy gossip about his life ... it was a very weird juxtaposition of two conflicting needs.

She twisted the ring around her finger as he talked about Amelia, taking comfort from its presence. He told funny stories, romantic stories, adventures and triumphs and tragedies. She just let his words fall over her ... and after awhile, his tears were totally dry and he even laughed at a few points, when talking about a centuries-long prank war between Amelia and Shippou. The game had apparently amused Amelia but sent Inuyasha, who often got caught by friendly fire by one or both parties, into a towering rage on regular occasions. Only after the fact could he laugh ... She was relieved to see him smile; she thought his pain was lessened a bit, by sharing his favorite memories.

She realized he had loved Amelia, really and truly and very deeply.

Kagome studied the diamond ring on her finger as he talked. Someday, would he talk about her like this, to some other woman? Barring accident or malice, he'd outlive her by millenia. She didn't really want to think about it, but she also suddenly understood Amelia's impulse to see that her beloved hanyou had someone to go on to ... When she thought of Inuyasha, decades from now, it was better to think of him living with some nebulous other woman, happy and loved, laughing and _living _life, than it was to think of him alone and miserable, perhaps sitting by himself in this very house. Inuyasha was not someone who dealt with being alone well -- and he was too proud to admit it.

_Thank you, Amelia, _she thought, with a sudden and unexpected surge of gratitude for the woman who'd been her hanyou's wife for so long. _You were worthy of him too._

It was possible, she realized, inspecting her engagement ring, to love greatly more than once in a lifetime. Particularly for one such as Inuyasha, who had a heart made of gold even more brilliant than the bit of jewelry he'd given her.

When the sun was beginning to rise in the east he yawned and completed his story with a somewhat stilted, "You know what happened after that. In the bar." He blinked at her with amber eyes that were calmer and saner than she'd seen from him since she'd found him.

"Inuyasha," she said, quietly, "Thank you for trusting me with that story."

"Keh." He leaned over to her, wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her towards him. She snuggled against him and started to drift down to exhausted sleep. There would be time enough for other discussions, and other things, later. Now, she was just comfortable in his arms.

Dimly, the last thing she was aware of was a grumble from Inuyasha about uncomfortable couches. When he scooped her up she briefly opened her eyes, but she was aware of was him settling her into the bed, and his weight dipping the mattress beside her. His arm slipped around her and then she slept.

----------------------------

She woke much later, to the sense that she was being watched.

Inuyasha was awake, sitting up, in his familiar dog-boy pose. He was bare-chested, wearing only boxers, silver hair long and loose and falling all around him in a glorious veil. Beside Inuyasha on the mattress, and rather unexpectedly, there was a cat who had assumed an almost identical stance. _Both _of them had her fixed with intense matching stares.

"Kirara!" She recognized the youkai cat and crowed a delighted greeting. Kirara was here! Alive!

"She showed up a few days ago," Inuyasha grinned at her cry of joy. He watched, tolerantly, as she scooped the cat up and hugged her and spun around the room with her in his arms. "Don't know how long she plans to stay, but it's great to see her."

"Kirara! You have another tail!" She noticed that belatedly. Kirara was purring happily, and when Kagome loosened her grip on the cat, she stretched up and rubbed her cheek against Kagome's face.

"She's gained power." Inuyasha said, reaching out and ruffling Kirara's ears. "Oi, kitty, time to put you out."

With a lot less respect than Kagome thought Kirara really deserved, Inuyasha claimed the cat from Kagome and unceremoniously plunked her outside on the balcony. He shut the door firmly and pulled the drapes. When he turned back, his grin was positively mischievous and it was _all _for her.

"Kagome?"

"Yeah?" She said, with anticipation -- she'd have to be completely clueless not to recognize that predatory look in his eyes.

"You're _mine_." He crossed the room in one bound, scooped her up, and sat down so hard on the bed that he bounced a foot off it, with her in his arms. "Gotcha!"

She laughed. A good eight hours of sleep had done wonders for his mood. "Whatcha gonna do with me now that you got me, dog-boy?"

"Oh, I can think of a few things ..." He growled, low and sexy.

She giggled, delighted by this turn of events. Then she dared him, "Yeah? You gonna show me?"

"You gonna give me a reason to?" He was teasing her right back, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

"Okay." She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. After several minutes, she murmured from an inch away from his lips, "That a good enough reason for you?"

His answer wasn't quite coherent, just a strangled jumble of syllables. "Kago ... me... want ... me ... you ...feh! Feh!" She'd reduced him to a complete loss of language skills, which made her laugh before he silenced her with another deep kiss. He then proceeded to show her _exactly _what he had in mind, with enthusiasm.

After, he repeated, "You're _mine_, Kagome."

"Mmm," she murmured, "Possessive much?" Though she didn't mind the proclamation at all ... it was certainly better than wondering what he thought!

"And I'm _yours_," he said, with satisfaction, head resting against her shoulder. "I'm yours, Kagome. Never doubt that again."


End file.
